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this question in a definite manner il would be worth while to ascer- 

 tain whether the diluvial deposit of the eastern portion of Louisiana 

 has not been washed down from the Alleghaney mountains, whose 

 watershed is in a southwestern direction; while the gravel beds of 

 northwest Louisiana derive their materials from the Sierra Madre 

 and Guadalupe mountains in New Mexico, by way of Texas, and 

 partly also from the mountains of the Indian territory and Arkan- 

 sas; the natural watershed of these mountain ranges being south- 

 east passing directly through northwest Louisiana to the Gulf of 

 Mexico. 



That part of northwest Louisiana which I passed in my travels, 

 does not show any outcrops of the underlying formations; but 

 judging from the fossils from Price's and Holtonswells in Bienville 

 parish, it appears that the post tertiary formations cover in that part 

 of the State the cretaceaus division of the pieiacene period. 



The surface geology of Louisiana is confined to the allusion, the 

 bluff formation and the diluvical deposit, all of past tertiary origin ; 

 with an occasional cropping out of the crumbling gray sand stone of 

 the Grand Gulf period, and the blue lime stone of St. Lundry and 

 Winn, of tertiary origin. 



The surface soil of Northwest Louisiana consists of a thin layer 

 of dark gray soil, with a sandy, or red and yellow loam subsoil, 

 which, if judiciously cultivated, produces fair cotton and corn crops ; 

 but unless manured wears out in three or four years. The land as 

 well as the climate would be well adapted to the cultivation of 

 wheat and other cereals, but as it requires much practice and skill 

 to handle the scythe effectually, the freedmen refuse to cut it after 

 the wheat has ripened. 



The so called red lands, are considered inexhaustible. What im- 

 parts to them this extraordinary fertility, it is impossible even to 

 conjecture, unless this kind of soil is impregnated with lime, phos- 

 phates in a comminated state, which could only be ascertained by 

 chemical analysis. As a general rule the uplands of Northwest 

 Louisiana are but moderately productive, but where the lands lie 

 level and do not wash, this soil could be improved by manuring and 

 judicious farming, and one acre could be made to yield, what three 

 acres now hardly produce, requiring three times as much labor, and 

 exhausting instead of improving the land. The lands improved by 



