114 PUMICE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. [CHAP. XXIX. 



as well defined as if it were a bed of liquid, instead of vapor, and 

 the cabin, roof, and funnels of a steamer may be seen moving 

 along perfectly imobscured, while the hull and lower parts are 

 as completely hidden as if buried beneath the turbid water on 

 which it floats. The pilot, too, from the upper deck, can often 

 see the shore and landmarks with perfect clearness, and steer his 

 vessel with safety, while the passengers on the cabin deck can see 

 nothing beyond the sides of the boat. The fogs form sometimes 

 whatever be the quarter from which the wind blows, but are 

 more frequent when it is from the south, as the air is then the 

 warmest. Pieces of ice rarely floated down below Natchez, 

 350 miles above the Balize ; but, in some seasons, they have 

 been known to reach the gulf itself. 



Next morning we weighed anchor, and passed Fort Jackson, 

 formerly Fort St. Philip, thirty-three miles above the Balize. 

 At several points, where we stopped for passengers, Dr. Carpenter 

 and I landed. The wood consisted of live oaks bearing bunches 

 of misletoe, cypress hung with Spanish moss, elms, alders, and the 

 red maple ; also a species of myrica, twenty feet high, and nu 

 merous wild vines, and other climbers, on the trees. At Bayou 

 Liere, there was a dense growth of a fan-palrn (Cliatn&rops 

 adansonia), from eight to thirteen feet high, and a log-cabin 

 thatched with its leaves, affording good shelter from the heaviest 

 rain. On the ground were numerous land-crabs ( Gclasimus), 

 called here fiddlers, which ran into their holes as we approached, 

 and a few small lizards, and a frog (liana pipicus), which, in 

 the night, had so shrill and clear a note, that we heard it two 

 miles off. The spring is so backward that few flowers are in 

 bloom, and we congratulated ourselves on escaping all annoyance 

 from musquitoes. At the water s edge I picked up several nuts 

 of the Carya aquatica, and many pieces of pumice as large as 

 apples, which must have come from the Rocky Mountains, and 

 are interesting, as reminding one of the fact, that volcanic regions 

 are drained by the western tributaries of the Mississippi. But I 

 could riot find a single empty land-shell, or helix, such as the 

 Rhine arid many other rivers bring down, and am told that none 

 are met with buried in the recent deposits of the delta. 



