118 REEDS, SHELLS, AND BIRDS. [CHAP. XXIX. 



midst of a dense crop of tall reeds. This plant (Arundo phrag- 

 mitis) is an annual, and inhabits fresh-water swamps, yet we 

 found many dead barnacles attached to them, showing that, in 

 the course of the year, when the river is low, the salt water pre 

 vails here, so that these marine cirripeda have time to be devel 

 oped from the embryo state, and to flourish for some months, till 

 they are killed by the returning fresh water. We could only 

 detect one shell inhabiting these mud banks, a species of Neritina. 

 But I am told that the Gnathodon is found in the brackish 

 water, a short distance beyond. It was also stated, that about 

 eighteen miles beyond the southwest and northwest passes, or 

 extreme mouths of the river, there are banks of sea-shells of 

 various species. With the arundo was intermixed a tall rush or 

 reed-mace ( Typha), somewhat resembling the bulrush. We got 

 out and walked on these banks, on which fresh water was stand 

 ing, so cold and benumbing to the hands, that we had no fear of 

 musquitoes. At almost any other season these insects would have 

 swarmed here, and tormented us greatly. Even the alligators 

 were invisible, though some of them had been out a few days 

 before. Many paths, recently trodden by racoons, were seen to 

 traverse the reeds, and there were foot-prints of the civet or 

 mink, and of wild cats and water-rats in abundance. We put 

 up several white herons, and many snipes and curlews, and the 

 boat-tailed grackle (Quisqualus). 



At length returning to the boat, we soon reached a channel 

 blocked up with drift wood in every stage of decay, some fresh 

 and sound, but most of it rotten and water-logged. We walked 

 for hundreds of yards over natural rafts of this timber, the quan 

 tity of which, they say, has sensibly diminished since the steamers 

 began to consume so much fuel, for it is now intercepted in large 

 quantities before it gets to New Orleans, and cut into logs for the 

 steamers. 



We were desirous of obtaining accurate information from the 

 pilots respecting the recent advance of land on the Gulf, hoping 

 from such data to calculate the time when the mouths of the 

 river were at New Orleans. But I soon found that materials 

 for such a calculation are not to be procured. 



