164 



DELTA OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



of mud and sand into the Bay of Bengal in the flood 

 season, that the sea only recovers its transparency 

 at the distance of 60 miles from the coast. The 

 water gradually deepens from four to sixty fathoms 

 at the distance of 100 miles from the coast, so that 

 the general slope of the new strata is very gradual. 

 Opposite the mouth of the Hoogly river, four miles 

 from the nearest land of the delta, a new island was 

 formed about twenty years ago, called Edmonstone 

 Island, on the centre of which a beacon was erected 

 as a landmark in 1817. In 1818 the island had be- 

 come two miles long and half a mile broad, and was 

 covered with shrubs and vegetation, and houses 

 were built upon it. At the present time, however, 

 only a small sandbank remains, the rest having 

 been washed away.* Major Colebrook states, that 

 islands many miles in extent have been formed 

 during a period far short of a man's life by the col- 

 lection of sandbanks, and while the river is form- 

 ing new islands in one part it is sweeping away old 

 ones in others. Those newly formed are soon over- 

 run with reeds, long grass, the tamarix Indica, and 

 other shrubs, forming impenetrable thickets, where 

 deer, tigers, buffaloes, and other wild animals take 

 shelter. 



Delta of the Mississippi. — The delta of the Missis* 

 sippi may be described as a long, narrow tongue of 

 land, consisting mainly of the banks of the river. 

 This portion of land has advanced many leagues 

 since New-Orleans was built, and is still advancing 

 with great rapidity, while the Gulf of Mexico is 

 gradually but constantly growing shallower, so that 

 it now rarely exceeds ten fathoms in depth in any 

 part. In consequence of the numerous sandbars 

 deposited at the mouth of the Mississippi, its en- 

 trance is exceedingly difficult and dangerous. 



The reason why a delta is not formed at the mouth 



* Trans. Asiatic Soc, vol. vii., p. 14, 



