CHAP. XXXIII. ] LAKE EULALIE. 233 



been so mixed with water, as to have spread freely 

 like a fluid over the soil. 



My attention was next drawn to the bed of what 

 was once a lake, called Eulalie ; Mr. W. Hunter, the 

 proprietor of the estate, accompanying me to the spot. 

 The bottom, now dried up, is about 300 yards long by 

 100 yards in width, and chiefly composed of clay, co 

 vered with trees, the whole of them less than thirty- 

 four years old. They consist of cotton-wood (Populus 

 angulatcL), willows, the honey locust, and other spe 

 cies. Some single cotton-wood trees have grown so 

 fast as to be near two and a half feet in diameter, 

 and had not my guide known their age accurately, 

 I should have suspected their origin to have been 

 prior to 1811. All the species on the bottom differ 

 from those covering the surrounding higher ground, 

 which is more elevated by twelve or fifteen feet. 

 Here the hickory, the black and white oak, the gum, 

 and other trees, many of them of ancient date, are 

 seen to flourish. On all sides, the ascent from the 

 old bed of the lake to its boundary, is by a steep 

 slope, on ascending which you reach a platform on a 

 level with the top of the bank of the Mississippi, 

 which is about a mile distant. Mr. Hunter informed 

 me that Lake Eulalie was formerly filled with clear 

 water, and abounded in fish, until it was suddenly 

 drained by the earthquake. In the clayey bottom, I 

 traced the course of two parallel fissures, by which 

 the waters escaped. They are separated from each 

 other by a distance of about eight yards, and are not 

 yet entirely closed. Near their edges, much sand 



