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twenty years have been formed at all the mouths 

 of the river, leave no room to doubt that this neck 

 of land has been formed in the fame manner. It 

 appears certain, that when M. de Sale went down the 

 Miffiffippi to the lea, the mouth of this river 

 was quite different from what it is at pre- 

 fent. 



The nearer we approach the fea, the more fen- 

 fible this becomes : the bar has little or no water 

 on the greateft part of the out-lets which the river 

 has opened for itfelf, and which have been fo 

 greatly multiplied by means of trees, which have 

 been carried along with the current ; and one of 

 them being flopt, by means of its roots or branches, 

 in a place where there is little depth of water, is 

 the occafion of flopping a thoufand more. I have 

 feen, two hundred leagues from hence, heaps of 

 them, one of which alone would fill all the timber- 

 yards in Paris. Nothing can then feparate the 

 mud from them which the river carries along with 

 it ; it ferves them as a cement, and covers them 

 by little and little every frefli inundation leaves 

 a new bed, and after ten years at mofb the canes 

 and fhrubs begin to grow. It is in this manner, 

 that the greateft part of thefe points of land and 

 i (lands have been formed, which have fo often 

 cauied a change in the courfe of the river. 



I have nothing to add to what I have faid in the 

 beginning of the foregoing letter, about the pre- 

 fent ftate of New Orleans. The jufteft notion 

 you can form of it is, to imagine to yourfeif two 

 hundred perfons, who have been fent out to build 

 a city, and who have fettled on the banks of a 

 great river, thinking upon nothing but upon put- 

 ting themfeives under cover from the injuries of 



U 2 the 



