94 
LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.—-NO. 4. 
experience. Its efficacy must depend, not on the 
removal of the eggs, but on the stifling of the mag¬ 
gots, and the inability of either the maggots or moths 
to move in so close a mass. 
Edmund Ruffin. 
Marlbourne , Va., Nov., 1846. 
LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.—No. 4. 
Louisiana is in many respects the most peculiar 
country on the globe. Its southern border rests 
upon the Gulf of Mexico, avast inland sea, in lati¬ 
tude below 29° north. Its northern boundary 
reaches to 33° ; its eastern is the Pearl River, which 
separates it from Alabama, to latitude 31°, when 
the great Mississippi becomes the dividing line from 
the State that receives its name; while its western 
extremity is limited by the Sabine. The whole 
southern portion of this State, over 300 miles in 
length, by an average width of nearly 75, is exclu¬ 
sively an alluvial deposit. If to this be added 
similar deposits on the great river and its tributaries 
above, it presents a delta of comparatively recent 
formation, far surpassing any other within the same 
compass, in any quarter of the world, (a) Even those 
of the Nile, the Euphrates, and every other large 
river except the Ganges, are inconsiderable forma¬ 
tions, in comparison with this magnificent encroach¬ 
ment on the ocean bed. And still the struggle is 
onward and irresistible. The vast body of water 
which debouches into the Gulf from several mouths, 
has its rise more than 5,000 miles above, by the 
course of the stream ; and from its remotest source, 
and by every one of its innumerable branches, it is 
bringing down the ancient elevations, and spreading 
them over the tidal waters, the future and fruitful 
abode of civilized man. 
Opposite the city of New Orleans, the trunk of 
the river has a breadth of 2,500 feet, with an ave¬ 
rage depth of 100, through which the water passes 
with a mean velocity of 2 feet per second. During 
a flood, this velocity is greatly augmented, and the 
water contains about 1-1000th part by weight and 
1-2000th part by bulk of purely earthy matter, 
yielding a daily deposite of nearly 1,400,000 tons ! 
The effect of this immense floating alluvion is seen 
in the gradual deposites and elevation of the low 
lands bordering the principal stream, and its nume¬ 
rous bayous and collateral branches, the accretions 
on the levee opposite the centre of the city (which 
have extended the bank several hundred feet within 
a few years), and the constant and rapid extension 
of the land at the mouth. The late Judge Martin 
states that “ the old Balize, a post erected by the 
French in 1724, at the mouth of the river, is now 
(1827) two miles above it.” 
Everywhere on the banks of the passing stream, 
the land is highest; as the water, charged with 
floating matter, overflows its brim, and becomes 
comparatively stagnant, allowing a large portion of 
the solid material to subside ; while the partially 
purified water passes onward through other chan¬ 
nels to the Gulf. The result of this is to give a 
higher, cultivatable surface for some distance from 
the banks, while that portion of the land remote 
from them subsides into irreclaimable swamps, and 
frequently navigable lakes and lagoons. The natu¬ 
ral elevation of the banks is not yet sufficient to 
prevent the overflow from floods, and this object is 
secured by artificial levees, or embankments, on 
both sides, which extend in a continuous line for 
hundreds of miles on the main stream and its col¬ 
lateral channels. The slow accumulation and con¬ 
sequent elevation of the surrounding country from 
deposits, which would otherwise have been going 
forward, is thus arrested ; and the present low, 
swampy surface must for ever continue unreclaimed, 
till embankments on the lower sides and the arti¬ 
ficial removal of the waters, bring portions of it 
into a condition for future cultivation. Could the 
hand of civilization and modem improvement have 
been arrested for a few centuries longer, till nature 
had finished what she has so auspiciously com¬ 
menced, large additions, and in a state far more 
fitted to reward their efforts, would have been sub¬ 
jected to their control. 
The delta of the Mississippi is similar in its cha¬ 
racter, though on an immeasurably larger scale, to 
that formed around and below the junction of the 
Alabama and Tom bigbee Rivers, and extending into 
Mobile Bay. Here, it is apparent that the waters 
of the bay once extended high up the stream, and 
embraced what is now the low, level banks on 
either side. The same is true of the mouths of the 
Pearl, Pascagoula, and other smaller streams, which 
lie between those larger rivers; and we are thus 
inevitably forced to the conclusion, that the inner 
channels which lie within the islands that stretch 
from Mobile to Lake Borgne, inclusive of this, and 
Lakes Pontchartrain, Maurepas, and the innumera¬ 
ble other smaller lakes and bayous which intersect 
the whole delta of the Mississippi, have been 
rescued from the tide waters within a (, geologically) 
recent period. And there is scarcely a doubt that 
this former arm of the Gulf once extended up to 
Yazoo, the Red River, and some other of the 
smaller rivers, all of whose banks are intersected 
by numerous channels, through which the waters 
flow into the adjoining streams, as either has the 
ascendency from recent floods on its upper branches. 
These interlocking with each other in every direc¬ 
tion, and all at last terminating in the Gulf, separate 
the entire delta into a perfect net-work of islands. 
The land seldom rises beyond a few feet above low 
water mark, and from the banks gradually subsides 
into the swamps, lagoons, and lakes in the rear. 
The latter are sometimes deep, but are usually shal¬ 
low, with the slightest declination from a level as 
they recede from the shore; while the shorter and 
more direct channels, through which the water 
flows to the Gulf with fearful rapidity in times of 
floods, are generally narrow and of immense depth, 
frequently exceeding 100 feet. The coast is usually 
a low receding line, so obscurely defined as to leave 
it questionable, for miles, where the water ends and 
the land begins. 
The condition of the surface clearly indicates 
that drainage is the first and paramount object in 
the cultivation of the alluvial land of Louisiana. 
This has accordingly been practised to an extent 
far beyond anything exhibited in the United States. 
Large ditches running from the banks of the river 
and bayous to the swamps in the rear, intersected 
by numerous cross-excavations of a less depth, 
effectually drain off the surface-water before culti- 
