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Show EMIGRANT'S GUIDE; d t tream of about 200 yuds wide, its channel exces• oontracte o a 5 · • h 1 k b · · d" The entrance of Sabme mto t e a e may e s.Jvely wm m~.ns comin up the lake by the following means. The knoweno fbtyh ep e,rask oe .ts N · E-"g'· by N ., and . between the Netchez and S· a- r~ng run banks of white shells, behind which are a few s~attermg bme . turnin . the view in the direction of the lak:, an tmmense tree~ld of sh~lls will appear on the right, cro~ned wtth dwarf trees, mtho u last t 11 at are VI·S ·1blet·n that course • The nver enter• s the lake at the stern extremity of this latter bank o! shells, and IS not percep~ · ~1 w~ntil within a very short distance of 1ts mouth . tJ ;en miles above the lake the prairie cease3, anJ woods enclose the . b th banks About h;;tlf way between the lake and woods , nver on o · ·1 · h r the western shore rises abo~e inundation; ~.e sol IS, o~ever, poo and t hm. . p·m e. I· s the firs· t trees that are seen , a·1n·d are· . um deed, exd-cept on bottoms li~ble to inundation, the prevat mg tim er, on an near Sabine, in all Its length. b d , Above the woods there is nothing very remarkable to .e n?te re~ s·pectm· u th e S·a b " ne One bank generally the western, IS h1gh and J • ' ·d bl som· eti• mt> es '· ·11 "t N lat. 30° the Wacahatcha, a cons1 era e l11 Y · -'1. • J f 0 1 stream t.a 11 s m· fir o m tl1e N · W • Af~'. hiot>h as the boun s o pe ousads 31 o N .'lat. no creeks of any consequence enter f~om the east~rn, a~ the adjacent country is g.enerally pine wood ; soil barren, as IS usual , where that timber prevails. . · . l The next river east of the Sa bin.e JS the. Calc~sm. , The atter ·stream rises in the parish of N atclutoches, m ~ 1 30 N: lat. and purs. u ·m g nearly a south course falls into the gult of Mextco, forty ~ ' · · · · · t th miles east of the Sabine. Like other st.reams m 1ts VJCJHI y, e C<ilcasiu dilates into a large lake, and ag.am contracts t~ the form'1 of a river. before entering the ~ulf of Mextco. The Sabme a.nd Cal- ,· lakes have great resemblance to each other; the latter IS rather cthaes mm ost e· xtensive. · It may be noted as a sm· gu 1a rt· ty, th a t tl1 e he ad of both arc 111arkcJ by ~hell banks, which occur upon no other part of the banks of either. · · Tb~se two lakes may be no\V considered as the retreat of the ,;vild fo vi, of the duck anJ goose species, w~o have encountered to the eastwa rd tbeir great destroyer. man! "'he~e creatures are yet founJ in immense flocks in the wmter seas?n, m every part of the ·conntry, b~t in n? one place iu such quant1ty as the two lakes of Sal ,ine and Calcasm. . The Mermentau m3y, wilh propriety, be called the nv.er of OpeQ Jou~as from where its branches are all drawn, and some ol the finest <H~s· ~f which it waters. The Bayou Pla(1uemin~, Brule Cane, and ~t'zpiquc, and the Q.ueue To~tue, are the constttuent streams that form the Mermentau. The features of the country, watered by the · latter river, have considerable resemblance to those places th:~t are drained by Sabine and Calcasiu, but the traveller can percetvc on the eastern waters of the· Mermentau his approach tow:ards the . deltaf of the Mississippi. Pine becomes more rare, the vanous .specte"}hoe oak more frequent ; the soil evidently of much better quahty • prairies are more elevated and diversifie<.l. The lower ' part of the Mermentau, like its .neighbours, opens into a spacious lake, and befor~ EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 57 'its exit to the sea, again assumes the form and width of a -omaU .nvet·. The depth o~ water upon the respective bars of the three foregoing rivers. does not materially differ. The co<1. st, from the . mouth o( the s~lliue to that of the Mermentau, and, in fact, to V ~'>rmilion bay, is rem~rkably unifb~ • There is a small pr~jectiof? east of the mouth of Sabine, whiciJ is composed of soft mud ~ this pr"jection extends about three miles, where it i ~ fol!oweu by a hard sandy beach mi xed with shells, and in a distance of thirty seven-mile ·= between the muJ bank of Sabine and mouth of Calcasiu. ouly one narrow inlet occurs. Tbe shore is hf're uuiform, as the ~iJe of a wharf, bearing north seventy east by l1J :l ~netic cour ·es, which dir(Action it maintains to the mouth of the Mermf'ntau. On almost. all the maps, hitherto published of thi~ coast, the bearings and general appearc.. nce is most ·wretdwdly uelineated. Gauld's map of the coast of the gulf of Mexico, and some of tbe Spanish charts, are exceptions to this reproach. Lafon's map of Louiosiana exhibits the range of tbe const as ~e.aring about south seventy deurees east, and very much in uen ttd. From either the positions or delineations of this map, no person could possibly recognise the shore of this country. Wben the author of this treatise surveyed the coast in .1812-13, ~e was suppiied with one of Lafon' · Maps. and made tbe comparison on the spot between the map and the positions in nature. ' · Advancing to tbe eastward of the Mermentau, the fin;t stream that occurs is the Vermilion. It is, perhaps, an anom:- lly ·in geography, ·that th~ same sources contribute to form the Mermentau, Vermilion~ Teche, and Courtableau rivers ; but such is the fact. _The neighbourhood of Opelousas ·church, is a kinJ. of table land, from which the waters flow as from a comm.on centre. Without reference to a good 'map, it is very difficult to explain the very complicated structure of this singu](t'r country. The wate r-courses are interwoven into each other, with an intricacy that demands much attention · to comprehend with pr~ci£ion. Three miles .northwest of Opelousas church, there is, surruuncleJ by prairie, a body of woods two miles long and a half mil~ wide. This isolated forest is not un· aptly called Isle au L ' Anglois. The denomination of islanu is not unappropriate when applied to a copse standing in a sea of grass. . From the east side of this island ~ flows the head waters of tbe Merment. au. The source of the river is an extensive low wet plain. The water gradually colle~ts into a single channel, wbich pas. es to the southward, within less than a mile of Opelousas church; and continuin~ that com·se about three miles, divides; one part running- c:><~stward mto Bayou Bourbee, contributes to form thP. Vermilion ; the other runs southwest, into Bayou Plaquemine Bn.1lee, anJ finally, into the Mermentau river. Three miles north of Opelousas court-house, the drains of the prairie are connected ; part of th.e water flows north, mto Bayou Grand Louis, and the other south, forming the head of Bayoa Bourb ... ~. . Twenty miles northwest from Opelousas church in Grand Prairie,. rrses Bayou Grand Louis, which in its progress receives the watet ~ . 8 ' |
