200 LANDSLIPS. [CHAP. XXXI, 



some of its white flowers, which a month later would 

 be in full blow. The woods here, when all the trees 

 are in full foliage, and the tall magnolias in blossom, 

 must be truly beautiful. But so intense is the heat, 

 and such the danger of ague and the torment of 

 musquitos, that, at that season, they who can afford 

 to move, fly to some higher or more northern retreat. 



On the steep slope of the bluffs at Natchez, below 

 the vertical face of shelly loam, the Judas-tree, or 

 red- bud (Cercis canadensis), was now in full flower, 

 displaying a blaze of pink blossoms before it has put 

 forth any leaves. I saw four landslips on these 

 bluffs which have occurred within the last ten years, 

 for the springs which burst from the sand undermine 

 the clayey loam. They are instructive, as showing 

 how the bluffs give way as the Mississippi gradually 

 extends its course eastwards. There is one hollow of 

 ancient date, caused by a similar undermining, called 

 the Devil s Punch-bowl, a picturesque, crater-shaped 

 basin, of about 300 yards diameter at the top, and 

 100 yards at the bottom, where cypresses and gum- 

 trees are growing. At the top are seen the cotton- 

 wood, the maple, and the magnolia, mixed with pines. 



The name of Natchez has been derived from an In 

 dian tribe, and on the highest part of the bluff, on an 

 eminence called St. Rosalie, are some Indian mounds, 

 from which Dr. Dickeson has obtained some curious 

 remains of pottery, showing that some of the abori 

 ginal inhabitants of the great valley had made much 

 greater progress in the arts than their descendants 

 whom the Europeans drove out. One morning, close 



