CHAP. XXXI.] RACCOURCI CUT-OFF. 1 19 



strengthened by innumerable roots of trees, and, in the flood of 

 1845, the surplus waters of the Mississippi poured through the 

 cut with great velocity, yet failed to deepen it materially. By 

 shortening the channel twenty-five miles, the fall of the river 

 would be augmented, and the engineer flattered himself that the 

 effect might extend as far up as the mouth of the Red River. 

 By accelerating the current there it was hoped that a deeper 

 passage might be kept open in the sand-bar, which now blocks 

 up the navigation of that important tributary for the greater 

 part of the year. 



Some experienced pilots assured me, that the supposed short 

 ening of the channel of the Mississippi, between its junction with 

 the Ohio and New Orleans, was, in a great degree, a delusion. 

 Instead of the boasted gain of fifty miles, they say that not a 

 third of this distance has been realized. Immediately after the 

 completion of a new cut-off&quot;, the Mississippi begins to restore the 

 natural curvature of its channel by eating away one bank and 

 throwing out a sand-bar on the opposite side. 



Another fifty miles brought us to the mouth of the Red River, 

 where I saw the formidable bar, before alluded to, covered, for 

 the most part, by a growth of young willows and cotton-wood 

 (Populus angulata). After leaving the mouth of Red River, 

 we passed two bluffs on the left or eastern bank, one that of 

 Fort Adams, a very picturesque line of precipices, the other called 

 Ellis s Cliffs. In both I observed a predominance of white sand, 

 similar to that seen in part of the bluff at Port Hudson. 



At Natchez (where I rejoined my wife), there is a fine range 

 of bluffs, several miles long, and more than 200 feet in perpen 

 dicular height, the base of which is washed by the river. The 

 lower strata, laid open to view, consist of gravel and sand, desti 

 tute of organic remains, except some wood and silicified corals, 

 and other fossils, which have been derived from older rocks ; 

 while the upper sixty feet are composed of yellow loam, present 

 ing, as it wastes away, a vertical face toward the river. From 

 the surface of this clayey precipice are seen, projecting in relief, 

 the whitened and perfect shells of land-snails, of the genera Helix, 

 lldiclna, Pupa, C//clostoma, Achatina, and Succinca. These 



