Ill 



by the rain in a few years, the surface soil is swept olV, and nothing 

 is left but the barren cla} r , mixed with pebbles and sand. 



The aspect of the country through the pine ilats of Calcasieu and 

 the 4 pine hills of South Rapides is gloomy and desolate in the extreme. 

 The roads are mere narrow paths, hardly passible in a vehicle, and 

 the numerous water-courses present steep and almost impassable 

 banks, unprovided with bridges. Settlements are scarce and are 

 found only at long intervals. Frequently no house is seen on the 

 road within a distance of fifteen or twenty miles, and when a human 

 dwelling suddenly looms up, on approaching nearer it is found to 

 be an old dilapidated log cabin, with a few rooms serving as kitchen, 

 dining and sleeping appartment. But no matter how poor the 

 accommodations may be, the pine woods man never turns a traveler 

 away, and gives him the best he has, for which he naturally expects 

 compensation, for money is scarce in those parts, and a few dollars 

 will at least procure some luxuries not generally indulged in by these 

 primitive people. 



It has been said by an eminent writer that the degree of civiliza- 

 tion of any country may be determined from the condition of the 

 public roads. This pseudo-philosophical axiom finds* its application, 

 at least, partially, in the pine woods country of southwest Louisiana, 

 for what is called the military road is the most arrant cheat, to 

 deceive the traveling public with a high-sounding name. I will 

 state for the information of the traveler that he must not imagine 

 that this so-called military road, constructed by the authority of the 

 Federal Government, at a probable cost of half a million, bears any 

 resemblance to the celebrated Roman roads, which are to this day 

 the finest roads in the world, but he must all at once make up his 

 mind to exert hi3 utmost skill in driving, in order to avoid the most 

 dangerous water-washed gullies, leaving hardly sufficient room for a 

 carriage to pass, with a succession of steep, sandy hills constantly 

 rising before him, and numerous water-courses, most of them with- 

 out bridges, whose approaches are of a swampy nature, deep-rutted 

 and boggy, and whose banks descend by an almost perpendicular 

 slope of from six to ten feet, while the ascent is correspondingly 

 abrupt. 



Then is no post office between Lake Charles and Alexandria, a 

 distance of one hundred and thirty-five miles. The Postmaster 



