14
eaſt to weſt, of near two hundred miles, and in length, from north to ſouth, of about three degrees.
From what is called the Walnut Hills (a short distance below the mouth of the Yazow river, which we have made our northern boundary) to Baton Rouge, about one hundred and fifty miles above New Orleans, in keeping the courſe of the Miſſiſſippi, the hills, every ten or fifteen miles, recede from our view, affording extents of drowned country at the ſeaſons of high water: and in many places, in more elevated ſituations, large lakes, ſupplied with water from ſprings that burſt forth at the baſe of theſe hills, by which they are kept cool and limpid throughout the ſummer.
This interval between the river and high land, where there are no lakes, is generally grown over with the following trees and plants, viz. cupreſſus, populus, juglans pecan, quercus phellos, ſambucus, fraxinus, acer rubrum, ac. glaucum, ac. negundo, ſeveral ſpecies of iris, palmetto, ſeveral ſpecies of amarillis and lilium, willow, and near the borders of the lakes and banks of the river, impenetrable brakes of the arundo gigantea.
At Baton Rouge, on both sides of the river, the face of the country aſſumes one uniform champaign appearance, the higheſt part of the earth being that directly on the banks of the river; so that when the river is ſwelled by the ſpring floods beyond its banks, the water, which eſcapes in this way, never gets back
