104 



treatise on the geological formations of the State, but merely to 

 make a succinct statemont of what I have seen and what deduc- 

 tions I draw from these partial observations, without, however, 

 claiming any authority for the views I may advance. 



During my excursion in the spring I had occasion to travel in a 

 carriage and at my leisure through the extensive prairie regions of 

 St. Landry and Calcasieu, and I could not fail to be struck with the 

 marked difference that existed in the nature of the surface prairie 

 soil of the two parishes. The St. Landry prairies, from Opelousas 

 to Ville Platte in a northern direction, and from the same place 

 westward toward Bayou Cannes, possess nearly the same fertile 

 quality, and are probably composed of the same chemical elements 

 as the marsh soil of the Gulf coast and the Teche country; while 

 the Calcasieu prairies proper, from Nez Pique to Lake Charles, are 

 sand barrens, resting upon a yellow loam of the bluff formation, and 

 covered by a thin crest of vegetable mould and a thin layer of marsh 

 soil. In some low places the marsh soil is quite equal in depth to that 

 of the St. Landry prairies, and these fertile spots form fruitful oases 

 in the midst of a sandy desert. During spring, wherever the dead 

 vegetation has been burned, these sand prairies present a green car- 

 pet of grass undulating in every direction, and interspersed here 

 and there with circular sand mounds, adorned with the greatest 

 variety of bright colored spring flowers. The prairies are dotted 

 with the rose-tinted G-aura lindeheimeri, which is one of the largest 

 and most beautiful of the species, and although common in the 

 Texas prairies is not met with anywhere else in this State. The Castil- 

 leca coccinea decks the surface for some distance with scarlet and 

 purple, while the eye meets everywhere the blue-flowered clusters of 

 the Scutelaria integrifolia. The Callirhce papaver, with its cup-like 

 purple flowers, and the Trifoiium reflexum, with its heads of beau- 

 tifully tinted corollas, as well as several species of pink Polygalas, 

 are conspicuous on the sand mounds. The marshy low grounds 

 are clothed in blue and yellow by the Sisyrhinehim Bermudiana, the 

 Iris versicolor and the Ranunculus Texanus. In the St. Landry prai- 

 ries the most numerous plants aro the Cacalia ovata and the Poly- 

 taenia Nuttallii, which do not occur in the Calcasieu prairies. The 

 Psoralea melilotoidcs and the Erigeron tenue are common to both 

 regions. 



