By deepening and clearing out the existing natural channels, and by opening other artificial ones, through which the surplus water, that the bed of the Mississippi is not of sufficient capacity to take off, may be discharged into the gulf; with the aid of embankments and natural or artificial reservoirs, and by the use of machinery (worked in the commencement by steam, and as the country becomes open and cleared of timber by windmills,) to take off the rain water that may fall during the period that the Mississippi may be above its natural banks, it is believed that the whole of this country may be reclaimed, and made in the highest degree pro. ductive.

The immense value of this district of country when reclaimed, is not to be estimated so much by the extent of its superfices as by the extraordinary and inexhaustible quality of the soil, the richness of its products, and the extent of the population it would be capable of sustaining. Every acre of this land lying below the 31st degree of north latitude might be made to produce three thousand weight of sugar; and the whole of it is par ticularly adapted to the production of the most luxuriant crops of rice, indigo and cotton. Good sugar lands on the Mississippi, partially cleared, may be estimated as worth $100 per acre, and rapidly advancing in value. The rice lands of South Carolina, from their limited quantity, are of greater value. It is believed that the exchangeable value of the maximum products of these lands, when placed in a high state of cultivation, would be adequate to the comfortable support of 2,250,000 people, giving a popula

tion of one individual for every two acres; and it is highly probable that the population would rapidly accumulate to such an extent as to banish every kind of labour from agriculture except that of the human species, as is now the case in many of the best districts of China; and this result would also have been produced in many parts of Holland, had not that country become, from the nature of its climate, a grazing country.

The alluvial lands of Louisiana may be divided into two portions; the first, extending from the 33d to the 31st degree of north latitude, in a direction west of south, may be termed the upper plain, is 120 miles in length, and generally from 25 to 30 miles in breadth, and, at particular points, is of still greater width. That portion below the 31st degree of north latitude, may be termed the lower plain. It extends in a direction from northwest to south-east for about 240 miles, to the mouth of the Mississippi; is compressed at its northern point, but opening rapidly, it forms at its base a semi-circle, as it protrudes into the gulf of Mexico, of 200 miles in extent, from the Chafalaya to the Rigoletts. The elevation of the plain at the 33d degree of north latitude, above the common tide waters of the gulf of Mexico, must exceed one hundred and thirty feet.

This plain embraces lands of va rious descriptions, which may be arranged into four classes :

The first class, which is probably equal in quantity to two thirds of the whole, is covered with heavy timber, and an almost im. penetrable undergrowth of cane and other shrubbery. This portion, from natural causes, is rapid

ly drained as fast as the waters retire within their natural channels, and, possessing a soil of the greatest fertility, tempts the settler, af. ter a few years of low water, to make an establishment, from which he is driven off by the first extraordinary flood.

The second class consists of cyprus swamps: these are basins, or depressions of the surface, from which there is no natural outlet; and which filling with water during the floods, remain covered by it until the water be evaporated, or be gradually absorbed by the earth. The beds of these depressions being very universally above the common low water mark of the rivers and bayous, they may be readily drained, and would then be more conveniently converted into rice fields than any other portions of the plain.

The third class embraces the sea marsh, which is a belt of land extending along the Gulf of Mexico, from the Chafalaya to the Rigo. letts. This belt is but partially covered by the common tides, but is subject to inundation from the high waters of the gulf during the autumnal equinoctial gales; it is generally without timber.

The fourth class consists of small bodies of prairie lands, dispersed through different portions of the plain; these pieces of land, generally the most elevated spots, are without timber, but of great fertility.

The alluvial plain of Louisiana, and that of Egypt, having been created by the deposite of large rivers watering immense extents of country, and disemboguing them selves into shallow oceans, mode. rately elevated by the tide, but which, from the influence of the winds, are constantly tending in a

rapid manner to throw up obstructions at the mouths of all water courses emptying into them, it is fairly to be inferred that the alluvial plain of Egypt has, in time past, been as much subject to inundation from the waters of the Nile, as that of Louisiana now is from those of the Mississippi, and that the floods of the Nile have not only been controlled and restricted within its banks by the labour and ingenuity of man, but have been regulated and directed to the irrigation and improvement of the soil of the adjacent plain: a work better entitled to have been handed down to posterity by the erection of those massive monuments, the pyramids of Egypt, than any other event that could have occurred in the history of that country.

That the labour and ingenuity of man are adequate to produce the same result in relation to the Mississippi river and the plain of Louisiana, is a position not to be doubted; and it is believed that there are circumstances incident to the topography of this plain, that will facilitate such results.

The Mississippi river, on entering this plain at the 33d degree of north latitude, crosses it diagonally to the high lands a little below the mouth of the Yazoo; from thence it winds along the highlands of the states of Mississippi and Louisiana to Baton Rouge, leaving in this distance, the alluvial lands on its western branch; from a point a little below Baton Rouge it takes an easterly course through the alluvial plain, and nearly parallel to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, until it reaches the English Turn: and from thence, bending to the south, it disembogues itself into the Gulf of Mexico by six or seven different channels. The banks of the Mis.

sissippi, which are but two or three feet above the common tide water near its mouth, gradually ascend with the plain of which they constitute the highest ridges, to the 33d degree of north latitude, where they are elevated above the low water mark of the river thirty or forty feet. The banks are, however, subject to be overflowed throughout this distance, except at those points protected by levees or embankments; this arises from a law incident to running water courses of considerable length, which is, that the floods in them acquire their greatest elevation as you approach a point nearly equidistant from their mouths and sources. The depth of the Mississippi is from 120 to 200 feet, decreasing as you approach very near the mouth, to a moderate depth. Exclusive of a number of small bayous, there are three large natural canals or channels, by which the surplus waters of the Mississippi are taken off to the gulf. The first of these above New-Orleans, is Lafourche, which, leaving the river at Donaldsonville, reaches the gulf in a tolerably direct course of about ninety miles. The La. fourche is about 100 yards wide; its bed is nearly on a level with the low water mark where it leaves the river; its banks are high, and protected by slight levees; and in high floods it takes off a large column of water. Above Lafourche the Bayou Manchac, or Iberville, connecting with the lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain, takes off into the gulf, through the Rigoletts and other passes, a considerable portion of the surplus waters of the Mississippi; the bed of this bayou is 14 feet above the level of the low water of the Mississippi, and as it reaches tide water in a much

shorter distance than the Mississippi itself, it would take of a large column of water if its channel was not very much obstructed.* Nearly opposite to Manchac, but lower down the river, is Bayou Plaquemine, a cut off from the Mississippi to the Chafalaya; but as there is a considerable declination, in this part of the plain, of the alluvial lands, and being unobstructed in its passage, it is rapid, and takes off a large body of water; where it leaves the river, however, its bed is five feet above the level of the low water mark. About 88 miles above Manchac, and just below the 31st degree of latitude, is the Chafalaya. This is one of the ancient channels of the Mississippi river, and being very deep, carries off at all times great quantities of water; and were its obstructions removed, it would probably carry off a much larger quantity. As the distance from the point where the Chafalaya leaves the Mississippi, along its channel, to the gulf, is only 182 miles, and that which the Mississippi traverses from the point of separation to the gulf is 318, it is evident that a given column of water may be passed off in much less time through the channel of the latter stream. graphical description of that portion of the plain south of the 31st degree of latitude, it is evident, that, independent of the general and gradual declination of this plain descending with the Mississippi, it also has a more rapid declination towards the Lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain on the east, and to

From this topo

*The difference between the highest elevation of the waters at the afflux of the Manchac, and the lowest level of the tide in Ponchartrain, is from 27 to 80 feet.

wards the valley of the great Lake of Attakapas on the west, and it may, as to its form and configuration, be compared to the convex surface of a flattened scollop shell, having one of its sides very much curved, and the surface of the other somewhat indented; there is, therefore, good reason to believe that, by conforming to the unerring indications of nature, and aiding her in those operations which she has commenced, this plain may be reclaimed from inundation.

The quantity of water which has been drawn off from the Mississippi, through the Iberville, the Bayou Lafourche and the Chafalaya, has so reduced the volume of water which passes off through the Mississippi proper, that indivi. dual enterprise has been enabled to throw up embankments along the whole course of that river, from a point a little below that where the Cafalaya leaves the Mississippi nearly to its mouth, and for forty or fifty miles on each side of the Lafourche; the lands thus reclaimed will not, however, average forty acres in depth, fit for cultivation, and may be estimated at 400,000 acres. This is certain ly the most productive body of land in the United States, and will be in a very short period, if it is not at present, as productive as any other known tract of country of equal

extent.

If the waters drawn off in any given time from the Mississippi through the natural channels, now formed, were delivered into the gulf through those channels in the same given time, then they would not overflow their natural banks, and the adjacent lands would be reclaimed; but this is not the fact; and the object can only be accom.

plished by increasing the capacity and number of outlets of the natural channels by which the water is now disembogued, and by forming other artificial ones, if necessary, by which the volume of water that enters into the lower plain of Louisiana, in any given time, may be discharged into the gulf of Mexico within the same time. If that volume were ascertained with any tolerable degree of accuracy, then the number and capacity of the channels necessary for taking it off into the gulf might be calculated with sufficient certainty. A reference to the map of that country will show that the rivers which discharge themselves into the lower plain of Louisiana, and whose waters are carried to the gulf in common with those of the Mississippi, drain but a small tract of upland country; for Pearl river, and, if necessary, at a very mo. derate expense, the Teche, may be thrown into the ocean by sepa rate and distinct channels.

At the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and near to the point where Red river flows into, and the Chafalaya is discharged from, the Mississippi, the waters of that river are compressed into a narrower space than at any other point below the 33d degree of north latitude; this may be considered as the apex of the lower plain. The contraction of the waters of the Mississippi at this point is occa. sioned by the Avoyelles, which, during high water, is an island, and is alluvial land, but of ancient ori. gin; from this island a tongue of land projects towards the Mississippi, which, though covered at high water, is of considerable elevation. It is probable, therefore, that at the point thus designa.

ted, a series of experiments and admeasurements could be made, by which the volume of water dis. charged in any given time, on the lower plain, by the Mississippi, at its different stages of elevation, might be ascertained with sufficient accuracy to calculate the number and capacity of the channels necessary to discharge that volume of water into the gulf of Mexico in the same time. With this data, the practicability and the expense of enlarging the natural, and excavating a sufficient number of new, channels to affect this object, might readily be ascertained. If that work could be accomplished by the government, every thing else in respect to the lower plain should be left to individual exertion, and the lands would be reclaimed as the increase of population and wealth of the country might create a demand for them.

The contraction of the plain of the Mississippi by the elevated lands of the Avoyelles, and the manner in which Red river passes through the whole width of the upper plain, to a distance of nearly thirty miles, has a strong tendency to back up all the waters of the upper plain; therefore it is that, immediately above this point, there is a greater extent of alluvial lands, more deeply covered with water than at any other point, perhaps, on the whole surface of the plain of Louisiana; and at some distance below this point, the embankments of the Mississippi terminate. To enable individuals to progress with these embankments, and to facilitate the erection of others along the water courses, and to reclaim with facility the lands of the upper plain, it will probably be found to be indispensably necessary to draw

off a considerable portion of the water by artificial channels. The Red river, arrested in its direct progress by the elevated lands of Avoyelles, is deflected in a direction contrary to the general course of the Mississippi, and traverses the whole width of the upper plain in a circuitous course of upwards of thirty miles before it reaches that river. There is good reason to believe that the waters of the Red river, or a very large portion of them, in times past, found their way through Bayou Boeuf and the lake of the Attakapas to the ocean; and during high floods a small portion of the waters of that river are now discharged into the Bayou Bœuf, at different points between the Avoyelles and Rapide. A deep cut from the Red river, through the tongue of elevated alluvial land east of the Avoyelles, to the Chafalaya, and opening the natural channels by which it now occasionally flows into the Bayou Boeuf, would probably take off the waters which accumulate at the lower termination of the upper plain with such rapidity, and reduce their elevation so much as to enable individual enterprise and capital to continue the embankments, which now terminate below this point, not only along the whole course of the Mississippi, but along all those extensive water courses running through the upper plain.

The Tensa, a continuation of Black river, is, for fifty miles above its junction with Red river, a deep water course, and in breadth but little inferior to the Mississippi. It draws but a very small portion of its waters from the high lands, but communicates with the Mississippi by a number of lakes and bayous, at different points, from near its