120 LOUISIANA.

The pine woods are generally rolling; sometimes, but not often, level.They have almost invariably a poor soil, sufficiently described in our accountof Florida and Alabama. They possess the same character here, except, thatcreeks are more common, with more extensive and somewhat richer bottoms ;and there is, perhaps, a greater proportion of laurels, oaks and hickoriesamong the pines. The greater proportion of the prairies is second-rate land.Some of those west of Opelousas, and between Washita and Red River, areeven sterile. Some parts of the prairies of Opelousas are of great fertility, andthose of Attakapas still more so. As a general fact, they are more level thanthose of the upper country. A large belt of these prairies, near the gulf, islow, marshy, and in rainy weather inundated. A very considerable extent ofthem has a cold clayey soil, with a hard pan near the surface. In other placesthe soil is of inky blackness, and disposed in the hot and dry season to crackin fissures, of a size to admit a man’s arm.

The bottoms are generally rich, but in very different degrees. Those of theMississippi and Red River, and the bayous connected with those streams, aremore fertile and productive than the streams west of them, and between themand the Sabine. The fertility of the richer bottoms of the Mississippi and RedRiver is sufficiently attested by the prodigious growth of the timber, the luxu-riance, size, and rankness of the cane and the cotton, the tangle of vines andcreepers, the astonishing size of the weeds, and the strength of vegetation ingeneral. We have measured a fig-tree, and a sumach, both ordinarily con-sidered as shrubs, which were larger than a man’s body. The richness of thearticles of cultivation is sufficiently well known. The cotton on fresh landsof the richest quality grows to the size of a considerable shrub.

The districts of Louisiana , which have the richest soil, are the following:_

1st. The island of New-Orleans . This is so denominated in geography, andcorrectly. Not far below Baton Rouge , a bayou, or efflux, called Manshac, orlbberville, makes out from the Mississippi , which, in its course, receives otherwaters, until swollen into a considerable river, it falls into lake Maurenas .That again is connected by a narrow gorge with lake Ponchartrain, and thatby the rigolets with lake Borgne and the Gulf. The Mississippi insulates it onthe other side. Consequently, the island of New-Orleans is a narrow strip ofland, stretching between this range of lakes and the river. About one third ofthe average width of this strip is under cultivation. The other two thirds aresw'amp. Its front is the eastern bank of the Mississippi ; and its rear is thisbayou and this line of lakes. The bayou Manshac, which completes theinsular character of this tract, is narrow, and is seldom seen by persons de-scending the Mississippi . This tract is the finest part of that rich country,called the coast. The coast is that part of the bottom of the Mississippi ,which commences with the first cultivation above the Balize, that is to say,about 40 miles below New-Orleans, and 150 above. This belt on each sideof the river is secured by an embankment, called a levee, from 6 to 8 feet inheight, and sufficiently broad, for the most part, to furnish a fine highway.The river, in ordinary inundations, w'ould cover the greater part of this beltfrom two to six feet in depth. It is from one to two miles in width, and per-haps a richer tract of land of the same extent cannot be found on the face ofthe globe. The levee extends something higher on the west than on the eastside of the river. Above the levee on the east bank of the river are the par-ishes of Baton Rouge , and East and West Feliciana. The latter parish re-ceived its name from its pleasant surface of fertile hiils and valleys, and itsunion of desirable circumstances for a planting country. This parish presentsa spectacle very uncommon in this country, hills that are covered with laurelsand forest trees, denoting the richest soil. Here are some of the wealthiestplanters and best plantations in the state, l’ayuu .Surah , the point of shipmentfor this region, sends great quantities of cotton to New-Orleans . Some of the