306 
LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.-—NO. II. 
A few plantations have been recently commenced 
on the latter river, with every prospect of success ; 
hut the low delta at its outlet and for a long distance 
both above and below, has hitherto kept its cultiva¬ 
tion in check over an extensive space on the river 
banks. 
The terms high and low land have altogether a 
local meaning in this region. The latter through¬ 
out the delta, includes only such as is so much sub¬ 
ject to overflow as to be unfit for cultivation, while 
the former embraces all that by dykes and ditches 
may be kept from destructive inundation, much of 
it being some feet below the high flood of the river, 
or bayous. Hill-land (or occasionally prairie) is 
the term here used to designate all the elevations 
not exclusively of deltal formation. This comes 
down to the river, as at Baton Rouge, Natchez, 
Vicksburg, Memphis, the Chickasaw Bluffs, and a 
few other points on the east; but on the west, it is 
seen only at Helena, just below the outlet of the St. 
Francis, in Arkansas, till we reach Commerce, in 
Missouri, a pretty hamlet of some half dozen 
houses, 1,200 miles above the Gulf. This whole 
region on the right bank of the river, extending in 
some cases (as in tl^e intervening space between the 
Tensas and beyond, and much of that below Red 
River) to more than 70 miles due west of the river, 
is exclusively formed from the alluvion of the Mis¬ 
sissippi ; nor is it scarcely less extensive on the east, 
where it spreads beyond the Yazoo, and its tributa¬ 
ries for a considerable distance north and south, 
through more than an entire degree of longitude; so 
vast and so fertile a territory has been formed by 
the sole agency of the floods, within a compara¬ 
tively recent period. 
By far the largest portion of this country is wil¬ 
derness, “ untouched, magnificent wilderness.” In¬ 
cluding a wide range on either side of the river, 
probably not one acre in 5'00 is at this moment un¬ 
der good cultivation, through no inconsiderable part 
of the distance between Vicksburg and St. Gene¬ 
vieve, in Missouri; and though an occasional and 
sometimes a frequent clearing, indicates the pre¬ 
sence of the settler, yet the agricultural treasures of 
this portion of the Mississippi valley have scarcely 
begun to be developed. 
The wild fowl, geese, brant, ducks, the white 
and blue crane, the fish-hawk, the eagle (and some¬ 
times the swan), in countless numbers, still occupy 
this their ancient domain in their appropriate sea¬ 
sons, and “ the father of waters,” in almost soli¬ 
tary grandeur, ceaselessly rolls on his turbid, re¬ 
sistless flood to the Gulf. 
Memphis is pleasantly situated on a bank, some 
50 feet high, is regularly laid out, substantially and 
tastefully built up, enjoys a large trade, and is 
rapidly increasing. It is said to contain already 
about 10,000 people. Helena, just below the out¬ 
let of the St. Francis, in Arkansas, is also a flour¬ 
ishing, busy place, with about 5,000 inhabitants. 
There are numerous other sites with ambitious 
names, containing from half a dozen to twenty or 
thirty houses, many of which are doubtless the 
germs of future emporiums of trade, when the sur¬ 
rounding country shall have become settled. 
Cairo, occupying the point of lowland at the 
junction of the Ohio, enjoys less trade and already, 
more dilapidation than its ancient namesake. A 
part of the embryo city is fenced in against the in¬ 
cursion of the floods, by a levfee some 15 feet high, 
which is mostly used for corn and cabbage gardens, 
| Along, dilapidated,unoccupied tavern, and some 20 
or 30 indifferent buildings, make up the sum total 
of improvements. The hulk of an old steamboat, 
well fitted up, and moored to the bank, accommo¬ 
dates the passengers with a temporary resting place, 
between the exchanges from one boat to another, 
which makes up the leading business of this place. 
Thebes, on the east bank, some 30 miles above, is 
a county seat with a dozen houses. Its new and 
showy court-house stands on an elevated bluff, 
overlooking the river, and is densely surrounded 
with forest-trees, which it is presumed will be 
remorselessly levelled at the first leisure moment. 
At Cape Girardeau, on the Missouri side, we first 
discover a high, projecting, rocky bank, though 
there are some minor specimens below. This is 
an ancient French settlement, and the present site 
of a showy Roman Catholic Asylum. There is a 
quarry here which yields small blocks of white 
marble. Blocks of immense size are furnished 55 
miles below St. Louis, at the quarries in St. Gene¬ 
vieve, the oldest of the French towns in Missouri. 
Herculaneum, with its dozen rustic looking build¬ 
ings, hasbeen shorn of its temporary importance a a 
a shipping port for the lead mines in the vicinity, 
and become an inland city from the alluvial depo¬ 
sit in front of its once accessible banks. 
Much of the western, and some of the eastern 
bank of the river, for 150 miles below St. Louis, is 
bordered by frequent detached or continuous pic¬ 
turesque bluffs. They sometimes recede in grace¬ 
ful swells from the bank and are covered with trees 
to their tops, or they come boldly to the water’s 
edge, and with their rocky bases, worn into a thou¬ 
sand fantastic shapes by ages of the downward cur¬ 
rents, they seem to defy further encroachment from 
this ever-shifting stream. Castle-Rock, 100 miles 
below St. Louis, is a circular isolated precipice sur¬ 
rounded by the water, some 80 feet high by 50 di¬ 
ameter, presenting an expanding base and overhang¬ 
ing capital, surmounted by a dense tuft of luxuriant 
shrubs. The double face presented to us, has all 
the regularity of a work of art, and might well be 
mistaken for the relic of some by-gone age of 
Titans. A much larger quadrangular rock, a few 
rods inland from the opposite shore, was the legen¬ 
dary retreat of the exploring party under Lewis and 
Clarke, in their three years journey to the then un¬ 
known Oregon. 
Extensive low-lands border the east bank of the 
river, similar to the delta below the Ohio. One of 
these, called the American bottom, opposite St. 
Louis, extends some 60 miles in length by 8 to 12 
in width, and is of unsurpassed fertility ; but as it 
is unhealthy and subject to overflow, little progress 
has yet been made in reclaiming and cultivating it. 
When our population becomes straitened for sub¬ 
sistence, as in Holland and elsewhere, millions of 
people will be crowded on to the lowlands of the 
Mississippi, which, by the aid of dykes and drain¬ 
ing whefels, will be made to contribute in unstinted 
measure to the wants of the human race. 
St. Louis is pleasantly situated on an elevated 
bank, is handsomely built, almost entirely of brick 
and stone, and is enjoying a large, prosperous, and 
