214 
The Cypress. 
depressions, through which the waters from such basins find diffi- 
cult outlets. Of such positions, the cypress seems always to 
have availed itself; and where they are the most fully developed, 
there it obtains its maximum perfection. But much defective 
cypress growth is found also along the margins of shallow 
sluggish bayous, through which the superabundant waters of the 
forests find difficult egress, on account of the undergrowth, drift- 
wood, limbs, leaves or other obstructions. Such basin-shaped 
depressions, containing cypress timber, are usually denominated 
"cypress brakes;" they are of various magnitudes, containing 
from one hundred to eight thousand " tiers " or cypress trees, of 
the length of forty, fifty, sixty and seventy feet, fit for rafting, 
and varying in diameter, at the top, from twenty to sixty inches. 
The largest and smallest are usually left in the forest. The 
greater number of these brakes are found near the Mississippi 
river and its branches, and the bayous which intersect the alluvial 
lands. These bayous are in a great part formed by the efflux of 
the waters from such woodland basins, which by their depres- 
sions are constituted filtering receptacles, and through which, 
drain all the waters from the surrounding lands of greater com- 
parative elevation. 
The character and condition of the cypress timber in these 
basins, bayous and sloughs, is found to vary very much. That 
growing along the margins of shallow, bushy bayous, is of infe- 
rior quality, affording but a small portion of timber fit for useful 
purposes; although oftentimes large, 
it is commonly of coarse texture and 
uncouth aspect; protruding at every 
elevation decaying limbs, which carry 
disease and rot into the body of the 
larger trees, rendering them more or 
less unfit for use; and those of smaller 
dimensions, in consequence of their 
limbs and incipient defects, are as 
often valueless. The general form of 
the trunks of bayou timber is repre- 
sented by the drawing, fig. 16. They 
swell out toward their base and form 
into large spreading butments, curv- 
ing into lateral roots, strongly fortify- 
ing their trunks. This is mostly the 
form and character of the timber along 
the margins of all bayous leading from their several sources in 
the cypress basin to their principal water courses. Its defects in 
character and growth increase on approaching the principal 
streams, and inversely, improve in receding from them towards 
Fig. 16. 
