Gipsies—Soil-^-Musketoes, 
peans, in Louisiana, remains to this day, a terra incog¬ 
nita to our geographers and map makers. Fortunately 
a map of Scotland will give a pretty correct idea of the 
geography of this part of Mississippi. Jura and Islay 
isles off Cantire, represent Ship and Cat islands off the 
peninsula of Biloxi. Cantire and Biloxi are alike in 
shape, the former being the larger. Cantire is sepa¬ 
rated from the main land by the Firth of Clyde ; Bi¬ 
loxi is separated From the main land by Back Bay. 
The river Clyde, on which Glasgow stands, is a good 
representation of the natural canal putting into Back 
Bay, called the Tunica Buffa, and where it receives a 
little river from the pine hills, some twenty miles in 
the interior, would afford a better situation for a large 
manufacturing town than the river Clyde on which 
Glasgow stands. Where the Tunica Buffa river falls 
into Tunica Buffa bayou, a fine water power could be 
obtained for driving any kind of machinery. 
Silk could be raised in any quantities in Southern 
Mississippi, as the mulberry grows finely on the poorest 
land. Upland rice and sweet potatoes, also grow well 
in the pine wood soil—peas likewise. The better 
kinds of land and the salt marshes, if reclaimed, would 
no doubt afford a sufficient quantity of Herba Spagna 
hay to enable the inhabitants to supply the New Or- 
leans and Mobile markets with mutton, beef, butter, &c. 
At present this section of country sends nothing to 
those markets but fish, crabs, oysters, shrimps, turtles 
and wild fowl, from the waters ; and venison and wild 
turkies from the woods. After the French discovered 
the-mouth of the Mississippi river, they abandoned 
their settlement at Biloxi, and removed to the spot on 
which New Orleans now stands. 
They transported, however, to their original settle¬ 
ment, a number of Gipsies, who intermarried with 
some of the primitive French settlers. The de¬ 
scendants of the Gipsies at the present time, constitute 
the larger portion of the inhabitants of Biloxi, Back 
Bay, and the above-mentioned natural canals. They 
are an ignorant, simple-hearted people, full of fun and 
frolic, but have no energy nor industry. They have 
neither schools nor churches; priest nor parson ; phy¬ 
sician nor surgeon ; lawyer nor school-master, among 
them. As an evidence of their want of reflection and 
industry, the town of Biloxi was nearly an hun¬ 
dred and thirty years old before it had a wharf. 
The water is shoal in front of it. Schooners, 
sloops, boats, &c. cannot come within one or two 
hundred yards of the shore. The cargoes were taken 
and discharged on men’s shoulders and partly by 
light perogues. A few years ago a German emigrant, 
at the expense of a hundred dollars, built a wharf, 
and broke up the occupation of the water-waders. 
Another blue-eyed emigrant cut up a large pine tree, 
which for a whole age had laid across one of the prin¬ 
cipal streets of the village. That portion of the Gip- 
sey French living on Tunica Buffa and the bayous of 
the Back Bay of Biloxi, are few in numbers and far 
between. They cultivate a little rice, and have some 
good fruit trees, but the larger portion, living at Bil¬ 
oxi, cultivate scarcely any thing. The soil on the 
coast, for a mile ar two back, is barren and sandy, too 
much so to justify improvement for agricultural purpo¬ 
ses. Good gardens are made by the wealthy at great 
expense. It is covered with live oaks, mulberry trees, 
magnolias, &c. Some live oaks in Biloxi are so large 
that the branches of a single tree form the radii of a 
circle more than three hundred feet in circumference. 
The Duke of Saxe Weimar says that the largest tree 
m the world is a live oak in front of M. Pradat’s 
house in Biloxi; but the noble German is mistaken. 
The coast, shaded by the magnificent live oaks, mag¬ 
nolias, mulberries, junipers and laurels, and fanned by 
the cool sea breezes, is well located for summer resi¬ 
dences. Many of the inhabitants of New Orleans have 
pretty villas along the coast, particularly at Biloxi, 
with neat bathing houses in front of the villas. On 
Back Bay, however, and the country in the rear of it, 
watered by the Tunica Buffa, and the other bayous 
leading into Back Bay, the soil, though in general 
thin and sandy on top, has a good clay foundation in 
reach of a two horse plough, and is consequently sus¬ 
ceptible of indefinite improvement. The means for 
enriching it is immediately at hand, consisting of ex¬ 
tensive beds of calcareous and argillacious marls. It 
contains many strips of rich hommoc land. It also 
contains great quantities of low land, exceedingly rich, 
but considered as valueless, in consequence of its being 
partially inundated by the high tides. If embankments 
were made and ditches cut, the whole of this low 
ground might be converted into luxuriant fields of Her¬ 
ba Spagna, or could be made to yield almost any kind of 
vegetation, which will grow in the south. Still deeper 
in the pine woods among the hills, beyond the plain 
watered by the bayous flowing into Back Bay, the land 
is said to be very poor, and I am not prepared to say 
whether it be susceptible of much improvement or not. 
Its soil is nowhere too poor for vines, sweet potatoes and 
mulberry trees. Nearly all the land in this region of 
country, except a little strip fronting the Gulf of Mex¬ 
ico, belongs to the United States government, and it is 
subject to entry. Vessels drawing eight or ten feet 
water, only can come directly to it from New-York, 
and at all seasons of the year, carry its products direct 
to New Orleans or Mobile—neither of which is more 
than one hundred miles by water; say thirty miles 
from Tunica Buffa, at the head of tide water to Biloxi, 
and about seventy from Biloxi through the Rigolets 
and the St. John Canal to New Orleans. The naviga¬ 
tion is very safe, being protected by islands and the 
main land nearly all the way. I know a Gipsy French¬ 
man, who frequently goes from Biloxi to New Orleans 
in a small canoe. The waters abound with fish and 
fowl of nearly all descriptions. The oysters are ex¬ 
cellent and abundant. If the oyster bank and sand 
bar at the mouth of Back Bay were removed, ships, 
drawing 30 feet water, could go in and out of Back Bay 
and up the natural canals into the pine woods. The 
indigo plant and Balmi Christi grow luxuriantly with¬ 
out cultivation. The sweet potatoes, of a kind called 
the Bermuda potatoe, and better flavored than any other 
kind, turn off abundantly in the poorest land. The 
grape, the fig and peach also, do well. 
The musketoes are not troublesome, except in the 
vicinity of fresh water ponds. The salt marshes do 
not breed them. Very few are seen at Biloxi. Some 
of the situations on Back Bay are troubled with them. 
I saw none on the above-mentioned natural canals 
leading into Back Bay. So far from musketoes being 
regarded as an evil, they should be viewed as kind 
messengers sent to warn the agriculturist against the 
danger of suffering stagnant pools of impure water to 
be about his premises, and to caution him against the 
unwholesome dampness of too many shade trees 
around his house. In the shade it is always cool 
in this country. Nor is it necessary that the shade 
should be very thick, so as to create dampness. With 
the exception of four hours, from eleven to three 
o’clock, this climate is not hotter in the sun than sum¬ 
mer weather in our northern states. In the shade, it 
is nearly always as cool as it is in the north, during 
the summer season. The four hours, above all ided to, 
might be advantageously employed in silk weaving or 
some in-door work, or in mental impro\ ement. By 
avoiding exposure to the noonday sun, the cool night 
air is never injurious. Total abstinence from spiritu- 
