below the town. Out of its small quota of population, 37 individuals last summer died of the yellow-fever, said to have been introduced by the steam-boat Alabama. The gloomy mantling of the forest communicated by the Tillandsia usneoides or long moss, which every where prevails, is a never-failing {231} proof of the presence of an unhealthy humidity in the atmosphere. The stagnating lagoons and bodies of refluent water also largely contribute to the unhealthiness of the climate. The vast extent and depth of this inundation is sufficiently evident by the marks along the banks of the river, which in places exhibited a rise of 50 feet above the present level!
29th.] To-day we passed the grand Gulf or eddy, near to which enters Big Black river.[220] Here again the friable hills of the high land make their appearance on the borders of the river, on and around which there are settlements. At the base of the hills loose heaps of sandstone lie scattered. A thin stratified bed of the same was now also visible. In high water a violent and dangerous eddy sweeps along these rocks. On the declivity of this hill we see the first trees of the Magnolia grandiflora. The small palmetto (Sabal minor) commences about Warrington. The distance to high land on the opposite or western side of the river is said to be little less than 30 miles.
30th.] This morning we came to what is called the Petit Gulf,[221] where another cluster of hills appears scattered with settlements. Here the banks present nothing but
