CHAP. XXXII.] LAKE CONCORDIA. 203 



engineer, who went with us to Lake Concordia, a 

 fine example of an old bend of the Mississippi, re 

 cently detached and converted into a crescent-shaped 

 lake, surrounded by wood. It is a fine sheet of water, 

 fifteen miles long, if measured by a curved line drawn 

 through the middle. The old levee, or embankment, 

 is still seen ; but it is no longer necessary to keep it 

 in repair, for, a few years ago, the channel which once 

 connected this bend with the main river was silted 

 up. Opposite Natchez the depth of the Mississippi 

 varies from 100 feet to 150 feet, but Lake Con 

 cordia has nowhere a greater depth than 40 feet. 

 There are thirteen similar lakes between the 

 mouth of the Arkansas and Baton Rouge, all near 

 the Mississippi, and produced by cut-offs ; and so 

 numerous are the channels which communicate from 

 one to the other, that a canoe may pass, during the 

 flood season, from Lake Concordia, and reach the Gulf 

 of Mexico without once entering the Mississippi. 

 We were shown a cypress tree on the borders of this 

 deserted river bend, from under the roots of which, 

 a few days before the time of our visit, a she alligator 

 had come out on a warm day, the place of her hybern- 

 ation appearing to be half in the mud and half in 

 the water. She brought out Avith her two broods, 

 one born in the preceding summer, which were six 

 inches long, and the others, an older set, about a foot 

 long. When Mr. Forshey approached them, the 

 young ones yelped like puppies, and the old one 

 hissed. On the shore of the lake we caught a tortoise, 

 called here the snapping-turtle, and found that all its 

 feet had been bitten off, devoured, our companions 



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