CHAPTER IV.
_Quality of the Lands above the_ Fork. _A Quarry of Stone for building_. _High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility. West Coast: West Lands: Saltpetre_.
To the west, the Fork, the lands are pretty flat, but exempt from inundations. The part best known of these lands is called Baya-Ogoula, a name framed Bayouc and Ogoula, which signifies the nation dwelling near the Bayouc; there having been a nation of that name in that place, when the first Frenchmen {142} came down the Missisippi; it lies twenty-five leagues from the capital.
But to the east, the lands are a good deal higher, seeing from Manchac to the river Wabache they are between an hundred and two hundred feet higher than the Missisippi in its greatest floods. The slope of these lands goes off perpendicularly from the Missisippi, which on that side receives but few rivers, and those very small, if we except the river of the Yasous, whose course is not above fifty leagues.
All these high lands are, besides, surmounted, in a good many places, by little eminences, or small hills, and rising grounds running off lengthwise, with gentle slopes. It is only when we go a little way from the Missisippi, that we find these high lands are over-topped by little mountains, which appear to be all of earth, though steep, without the least gravel or pebble being perceived on them.
The soil on these high lands is very good; it is a black light mold, about three feet deep on the hills or rising grounds. This upper earth lies upon a reddish clay, very strong and stiff; the lowest places between these hills are of the same nature, {143} but there the black earth is between five and six feet deep. The grass growing in the hollows is of the height of a man, and very slender and fine; whereas the grass of the same meadow on the high lands rises scarce knee deep; as it does on the highest eminences, unless there is found something underneath, which not only renders the grass shorter, but even prevents its growth by the efficacy of some exhalations; which is not ordinarily the case on hills, though rising high, but only on the mountains properly so called.
My experience in architecture having taught me, that several quarries have been found under a clay like this, I was always of opinion there must be some in those hills.
Since I made these reflections, I have had occasion, in my journey to the country, to confirm these conjectures. We had set up our hut at the foot of an eminence, which was steep towards us, and near a fountain, whose water was lukewarm and pure.
This fountain appeared to me to issue out of a hole, which was formed by the sinking of the earth. I stooped in order to take a better view of it, and I observed stone, which to the eye appeared proper for building, and the upper part which was this clay, which is peculiar to the country. I was highly pleased to be thus ascertained, that there was stone fit for building in this colony, where it is imagined there is none, because it does not come out of the earth to shew-itself.
It is not to be wondered, that there is none to be found in the Lower Louisiana, which is only an earth accumulated by ooze; but it is far more extraordinary, not to see a flint, nor even a pebble on the hills, for upwards of an hundred leagues sometimes; however, this is a thing common in this province.
I imagine I ought to assign a reason for it, which seems pretty probable to me. This land has never been turned, or dug, and is very close above the clay, which is extremely hard, and covers the stone, which cannot shew itself through such a covering: it is therefore no such surprise, that we observe no stone out of the earth in these plains and on these eminences.
{144} All these high lands are generally meadows and forests of tall trees, with grass up to the knee. Along gullies they prove to be thickets, in which wood of every kind is found, and also the fruits of the country.
Almost all these lands on the east of the river are such as I have described; that is, the meadows are on those high grounds, whose slope is very gentle; we also find there tall forests, and thickets in the low bottoms. In the meadows we observe here and there groves of very tall and straight oaks, to the number of fourscore or an hundred at most: there are others of about forty or fifty, which seem to have been planted by men's hands in these meadows, for a retreat to the buffaloes, deer, and other animals, and a screen against storms, and the sting of the flies.
The tall forests are all hiccory, or all oak: in these last we find a great many morels; but then there grows a species of mushrooms at the feet of felled walnut-trees, which the Indians carefully gather; I tasted of them, and found them good.
The meadows are not only covered with grass fit for pasture, but produce quantities of wood-strawberries in the month of April; for the following months the prospect is charming; we scarce observe a pile of grass, unless what we tread under foot; the flowers, which are then in all their beauty, exhibit to the view the most ravishing sight, being diversified without end; one in particular I have remarked, which would adorn the most beautiful parterre; I mean the Lion's Mouth (_la gueule de Lion_).
These meadows afford not only a charming prospect to the eye; they, moreover, plentifully produce excellent simples, (equally with tall woods) as well for the purposes of medicine as of dying. When all these plants are burnt, and a small rain comes on, mushrooms of an excellent flavour succeed to them, and whiten the surface of the meadows all over.
Those rising meadows and tall forests abound with buffaloes, elk, and deer, with turkeys, partridges, and all kinds of game; consequently wolves, catamounts, and other carnivorous animals are found there; which, in following the other animals, destroy and devour such as are too old or too fat; and when the {145} Indians go a hunting, these animals are sure to have the offal, or hound's fee, which makes them follow the hunters.
These high lands naturally produce mulberry-trees, the leaves of which are very grateful to the silk-worm. Indigo, in like manner, grows there along the thickets, without culture. There also a native tobacco is found growing wild, for the culture of which, as well as for other species of tobacco, these lands are extremely well adapted. Cotton is also cultivated to advantage: wheat and flax thrive better and more easily there, than lower down towards the capital, the land there being too fat; which is the reason that, indeed, oats come there to a greater height than in the lands I am speaking of; but the cotton and the other productions are neither so strong nor so fine there, and the crops of them are often less profitable, though the soil be of an excellent nature.
In fine, those high lands to the east of the Missisippi, from Manchae to the river Wabache, may and ought to contain mines: we find in them, just at the surface, iron and pit-coal, but no appearance of silver mines; gold there may be, copper also, and lead.
Let us return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi; which I shall cross, in order to visit the west side, as I have already done the east. I shall begin with the west coast, which resembles that to the east; but is still more dry and barren on the shore. On quitting that coast of white and crystal sand, in order to go northward, we meet five or six lakes, which communicate with one another, and which are, doubtless, remains of the sea. Between these lakes and the Missisippi, is an earth accumulated on the sand, and formed by the ooze of that river, as I said; between these lakes there is nothing but sand, on which there is so little earth, that the sand-bottom appears to view; so that we find there but little pasture, which some strayed buffaloes come to eat; and no trees, if we except a hill on the banks of one of these lakes, which is all covered with ever-green oaks, fit for ship-building. This spot may be a league in length by half a league in breadth; and was called Barataria, because enclosed by these lakes and their outlets, to form almost an island on dry land.
{146} These lakes are stored with monstrous carp, as well for size as for length; which slip out of the Missisippi and its muddy stream, when overflowed, in search of clearer water. The quantity of fish in these lakes is very surprising, especially as they abound with vast numbers of alligators. In the neighbourhood of these lakes there are some petty nations of Indians, who partly live on this amphibious animal.
Between these lakes and the banks of the Missisippi, there is some thin herbage, and among others, natural hemp, which grows like trees, and very branched. This need not surprise us, as each plant stands very distant from the other: hereabouts we find little wood, unless when we approach the Missisippi.
To the west of these lakes we find excellent lands, covered in many places with open woods of tall trees, through which one may easily ride on horseback; and here we find some buffaloes, which only pass through these woods because the pasture under the trees is bitter; and therefore they prefer the grass of the meadows, which lying exposed to the rays of the sun, becomes thereby more savoury.
In going still farther west, we meet much thicker woods, because this country is extremely well watered; we here find numbers of rivers, which fall into the sea; and what contributes to the fertility of this land, is the number of brooks, that fall into these rivers.
This country abounds with deer and other game; buffaloes are rare; but it promises great riches to such as shall inhabit it, from the excellent quality of its lands. The Spaniards, who bound us on that side, are jealous enough: but the great quantities of land they possess in America, have made them lose sight of settling there, though acquainted therewith before us: however, they took some steps to traverse our designs, when they saw we had some thoughts that way. But they are not settled there as yet; and who could hinder us from making advantageous settlements in that country?
I resume the banks of the Missisippi, above the lakes, and the lands above the Fork, which, as I have sufficiently acquainted {147} the reader, are none of the best; and I go up to the north, in order to follow the same method I observed in describing the nature of the lands to the east.
The banks of the Missisippi are of a fat and strong soil; but far less subject to inundations than the lands of the east. If we proceed a little way westward, we meet land gradually rising, and of an excellent quality; and even meadows, which we might well affirm to be boundless, if they were not intersected by little groves. These meadows are covered with buffaloes and other game, which live there so much the more peaceably, as they are neither hunted by men, who never frequent those countries; nor disquieted by wolves or tigers, which keep more to the north.
The country I have just described is such as I have represented it, till we come to New Mexico: it rises gently enough, near the Red River, which bounds it to the north, till we reach a high land, which was no more than five or six leagues in breadth, and in certain places only a league; it is almost flat, having but some eminences at some considerable distance from each other: we also meet some mountains of a middling height, which appear to contain something more than bare stone.
This high land begins at some leagues from the Missisippi, and continues so quite to New Mexico; it lowers towards the Red River, by windings, where it is diversified alternately with meadows and woods. The top of this height, on the contrary, has scarce any wood. A fine grass grows between the stones, which are common there. The buffaloes come to feed on this grass, when the rains drive them out of the plains; otherwise they go but little thither, because they find there neither water, nor saltpetre.
We are to remark, by the bye, that all cloven-footed animals are extremely fond of salt, and that Louisiana in general contains a great deal of saltpetre. And thus we are not to wonder, if the buffalo, the elk, and the deer, have a greater inclination to some certain places than to others, though they are there often hunted. We ought therefore to conclude, that there is more saltpetre in those places, than in such as they {148} haunt but rarely. This is what made me remark, that these animals, after their ordinary repass, fail but rarely to go to the torrents, where the earth is cut, and even to the clay; which they lick, especially after rain, because they there find a taste of salt, which allures them thither. Most of those who have made this remark imagine that these animals eat the earth; whereas in such places they only go in quest of the salt, which to them is so strong an allurement as to make them bid defiance to dangers in order to get at it.