194 FRESHWATER LOAM [CHAP. XXXI. 



boasted gain of fifty miles, they say that not a third 

 of this distance has been realised. Immediately after 

 the completion of a new cut-off, the Mississippi 

 begins to restore the natural curvature of its channel 

 by eating away one bank and throwing out a sand 

 bar on the opposite side. 



Another fifty miles brought us to the mouth of 

 the Red River, where I saw the formidable bar, 

 before alluded to, covered, for the most part, by a 

 growth of young willows and cotton-wood (Populus 

 angulata). After leaving the mouth of Red River, 

 we passed two bluffs on the left or eastern bank, one 

 that of Fort Adams, a very picturesque line of pre 

 cipices, the other called Ellis s Cliffs- In both I 

 observed a predominance of white sand, similar to 

 that seen in part of the bluff at Port Hudson. 



At Natchez (where I rejoined my wife), there is 

 a fine range of bluffs, several miles long, and more 

 than 200 feet in perpendicular height, the base of 

 which is washed by the river. The lower strata, 

 laid open to view, consist of gravel and sand, desti 

 tute of organic remains, except some woo/1 and silici- 

 fied corals, and other fossils, which have been derived 

 from older rocks : while the upper sixty feet are com 

 posed of yellow loam, presenting, as it wastes away, 

 a vertical face towards the river. From the surface 

 of this clayey precipice are seen, projecting in relief, 

 the whitened and perfect shells of land-snails, of the 

 genera Helix, Helicina, Pupa, Cyclostoma, Achatina, 

 and Succinea. These shells, of which we collected 

 twenty species, are all specifically identical with 

 those now inhabiting the valley of the Mississippi. 



