43° 
TRAVELS IN 
lies from eighteen inches to two or three feet be-* 
low, it has the virtue of fertilizing the virgin 
mould above, rendering it black, humid, foapy, 
and incredibly productive. 
I obferved two or three fcrubby Pine trees or 
rather dwarf bufhes, upon the higher! ridge of 
thefe plains, which are viewed here as a curiofity^ 
there being no Pine forefts within feveral leagues 
diftance from the banks of this great river, but, on 
the contrary, feemingly an endlefs wildernefs of 
Canes, and the mail magnificent forefts of the 
trees already noted, but particularly Platanus 
occidentalis, Liriodendron, Magnolia grandiflora, 
Liquidambar ftyraciflua, Juglans nigra, Juglans 
exaltata, Tilea, Morus rubra, Gleditfia triacan- 
thus, Laurus Borbonia, and Laurus falfafras ; this 
laft grows here to a vaft tree, forty or fifty feet 
ftraight trunk ; its timber is found to be ufeful, 
fawn into boards and fcantling, or hewn into pods 
for building and fencing. 
On the more fertile borders of the plains, ad- 
joining the furrounding forefts, are Sideroxylon, 
Pyrus coronaria, and Strawberry vines (Fragaria) 
but no fruit on them ; the inhabitants allured me 
they bore fruit in their feafon, very large, of a fine 
red colour, delicious and fragrant. 
Having made our tour and obfervations on the 
White plains, we returned to the river at the clofe 
of the day, and next morning fat off for Point Cou- 
pe : palled under the high painted cliffs, and then 
let our courfe acrofs the Miilimppi, which is here 
near two miles over : touched at a large ifland near 
the middle of the river, being led there, a little out 
