23 



to shade them, and the dusky woodland in the distance bordering 

 the horizon. After two hours' traveling the bayou gradually widens. 

 In some places there is a distance of a quarter of a mile which 

 separates the opposite banks. Here the land is principally composed 

 <if marsh prairie soil, thickly overgrown with marsh grass (Spartina 

 jnnooa)] Barataria bayou connects with Bayou Rigolet and Little 

 , which empty in St. Denis bayou. These bayous and lakes are 

 dotted with shell islands, some of them quite prominent for their 

 Dl and height above the level of the water. These shells might 

 be made a valuable commercial commodity. They are the best ma- 

 terial for making solid and substantial roads, and would serve as 

 valuable manure to improve the pine lands of Louisiana, and they 

 are partially used now for these purposes. But as the supply is 

 almost inexhaustible they ought to be worked systematically and the 

 shells transported on a grand scale. These islands are, in an agri- 

 cultural point of view, as valuable as the guano islands, and to fer- 

 tilize the orange sand soil shell lime is a far more useful manure 

 than guano. This species of shell (Gnathodon caneatus) is found 

 nowhere else in the world except in Lake Pontchartrain, Grand 

 Lake, the waters of the Gulf, and Mobile Bay; and some enterpris- 

 ing capatalists of Louisiana would confer great benefit upon the 

 State in bringing this article into market for the use of planters and 

 farmers, and for making some of the roads of Louisiana, which are 

 almost impassable during the winter, permanently solid, far superior 

 to any plankroads that can be constructed. 



The banks of these multifarious water courses, all formed by the 

 receding waters of the Gulf, assume many zigzag shapes and fan- 

 tastic indentations, and the water spreads and covers a vast area, 

 forming all around numerous narrow points of land. Sometimes 

 the marsh grass obstructs the bed of the stream, and leaves only 

 a narrow channel, just wide enough to let the boat pass through. 

 St. Denis Bayou has its outlet in Grand Lake, which constitutes 

 the western border of Barataria Bay, and is about fourteen miles 

 from Fort Livingston and seventeen miles from Grand Isle. These 

 bayous and lakes form numerous branch bayous in every direction, 

 which gives to the whole country the appearance of an inland 

 archipelago, interspersed with small islands and peninsulas of every 

 imaginable shape. The land being perfectly level, the sight is not 

 tructed, and the eye is struck with these ever-varied alternations 



