TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION 



or 



RED RIVER. 



This river enters the Mississippi on the western 

 side, at the first great bend below Fort Adams, 

 about nine miles distant from the crossing of the 

 line of demarkation. It is large, and one of the 

 most beautiful rivers in Lower Louisiana. Its 

 waters are brackish, of a reddish colour, turbid, 

 and deposit a sediment collected from the red 

 banks, far up the river. The banks are overflowed 

 in the spring to a great extent, and in places to 

 the depth of fifteen or eighteen feet. The fresh- 

 ets begin to fall in June, and by August the water 

 retires to the channel of the river and lagoons. 

 In the low lands the growth is principally willow 

 and cotton wood, and on the higher, large elms, 

 ash, and hickory ; where the grape vine greatly 

 abounds. About six miles from the mouth of 

 the river is a bayau, leading from Lake Long, 

 which is a narrow lake, two or three miles in 



