302 Expedition to the 



a system of lakes and water courses stretching along parallel 

 to the Mississippi, about thirty miles distant, and communi- 

 cating through the river and lake Atchafalaya with the Gulf 

 of Mexico, at a point more than one hundred and fifty miles 

 west of the principal debouchure of the Mississippi. 



The Red River of Louisiana enters the Mississippi from 

 the west in north latitude Z\° 5', and in 16** Z5' west longi- 

 tude from Philadelphia.* From the Mississippi to the 

 mouth of Black river, (as the Washita is called below the 

 confluence of the Ocatahoola and Tensa,) is twenty-six miles 

 by water. The aggregate width of Red river, for this dis- 

 tance, is from three hundred to three hundred and fifty yards. 

 The depth of. the water in summer varies, according to the 

 actual measurements of Messrs. Freeman and Humphrey, 

 from eighty-four to forty-two feet; the range from extreme 

 high to low water is from twenty-five to thirty feet, and the 

 banks are elevated from fourteen to twenty five feet above 

 the surface of the river at low water. At no great distance 

 on each side is a second alluvial bank, rising a few feet high- 

 er than the immediate bank of the river. Back of this the 

 surface is raised nearly to high water mark^ but descends 

 gradually towards the lakes and swamps which occur along 

 both sides of the valley of the river. In the wet season the 

 lower part of Red and Black rivers are lost in an extensive 

 lake, covering the country from the Mississippi westward 

 near one hundred miles, to the settlement of the Avoyelles. 

 The distinction made by Du Pratz between the country on 

 the south and that on the north side of Red river, appears 

 to be strictly applicable only to the part lying below the point 

 where Red river enters the immediate valley of the Missis- 

 sippi.! 



* Ellicot: 31P 1' 15'' according to Mr. De Ferrer. 



f " The south side of this river, quite to the rapid part, is entirely differ- 

 ent from the opposite side; it is something higher, and rises in proportion 

 as it approaches to the height I have mentioned; the quality is also very 



