136 MUSQUITOES. BAYOUS. [CHAP. XXX. 



ized, suffer no longer from the bites, or scarcely at all, and even 

 the young children of Creoles are proof against them, although 

 the face and neck of a new settler, whether young or old, swell 

 up frightfully. Yet the wild cattle and deer have not acquired any 

 hereditary immunity from this torment, and, to escape it, are seen 

 standing in the lakes with their heads only above the water.&quot; 

 Some passengers assured me, &quot; that when people have recovered 

 from the yellow fever, the skin, although in other respects as 

 sensitive as ever, is no longer affected by a musquito bite, or, if 

 at all, in a very slight degree;&quot; and they added, &quot;that last year, 

 1845, both the yellow fever and the musquitoes were in abeyance, 

 although the heat of the season was intense.&quot; 



After we had sailed up the river eighty miles, I was amused 

 by the sight of the insignificant village of Donaldsonville, the 

 future glories of which I had heard so eloquently depicted.^ Its 

 position, however, is doubtless important ; for here the right bank 

 is intersected by that arm of the Mississippi, called Bayou La 

 Fourche. This arm has much the appearance of a canal, and 

 by it, I am told, our steamer, although it draws no less than ten 

 feet water, might sail into the Gulf of Mexico, or traverse a large 

 part of that wonderful inland navigation in the delta which con 

 tributes so largely to the wealth of Louisiana. A curious 

 description was given me, by one of my fellow travelers, of that 

 same low country, especially the region called Attakapas. It 

 contains, he said, wide &quot; quaking prairies,&quot; where cattle are 

 pastured, and where you may fancy yourself far inland. Yet, 

 if you pierce any where through the turf to the depth of two 

 feet, you find sea-fish swimming about, which make their way in 

 search of food under the superficial sward, from the Gulf of Mexico, 

 through subterranean watery channels. 



Notwithstanding the quantity of sediment in the Mississippi, 

 they tell me that its waters are inhabited by abundance of shad 

 and herring, and in several places, when I asked the fishermen 

 what they were catching, they answered, &quot; Sardines.&quot; 



In the course of the first day we saw the Bayou Plaquemine 

 on the right, and the Iberville River on the left bank of the Mis- 

 * Ante, p. 99. 



