The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-08-14
LETTER FROM PELICAN.
NEW ORLEANS, August 6, 1870.

<1c 06N0 IOCCu0y VoASA @ PAOVVy AVDS
| flight through the southern portion of our
Creole State" propose to give You q
description in brief of my trip and what
On the 25th of last month was request
ed to go with one of the contractors of the
Chattanooga railroad, along the line q
that road from Grand river, in the Parish
1 of Iberville, to Vermillionville, in the
PARISH of Lafayette, it being the desire Of
the company to put that portion of their
road under contract, all this side Of Grand
river eighty six miles from Barataria
canal, being in course of construction
That evening. at O'Clock, myself and COM
panion-a jolly, .whole-souled son of the
:" Emerald Isle," who has been "O'er the
hills and far away I" in this great country
| took passage on the coast packet Henry
Tete," for Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville.
We had not gone far before bur boat
began her routine of business-stopping at
this place to put out q passenger, at that to
put off barrel of flour or key of nails,
crossing to the opposite bank to land some
lighter package of merchandise, and back
again to the next plantation or the near
shore to- take on passenger. So the
evening, night and next morning passed
away, when IL o'clock brought us to DON
aldsOnville, eighty miles from this city.
Here we stopped about two hours to put
off some heavy freight destined for planta-
| tions on Bayou Lafourche. After setting
out from this place we found our boat
headed down stream and soon ascertained,
to our UNPLEASANT surprise, that Uncle
Sans GA mail packet" had gone into
the more tedious but better paying bust
ness of towing RATS up the Mississippi
river. Soon she was alongside of o raft
OF about $50 cypress trees, and, having
secured it with good cables, swung out
into the stream, and for over three hours
swayed from side to side as the engines
groaned under the stress of power equired
to move the great weight she was dragging
through the water at the rate of about
mile an hour. About clock the raft was
disposed of short distance above the
mouth (head, believe I ought to say) of
Bayou Lafourche, and, our boat having
on her journey, and landed at Plaquemine
about o'clock in the evening.
The next day, Wednesday, the 9th, was
spent in procuring skiff, boatmen and
the provisions necessary for a trip through
the interior, until o'clock in the evening,
OF Plaquemine, for the residence ola friend
some ten miles down the bayou, after
which the quiet little burg takes it's name,
where We arrived after nightfall, having
walked good part of the way that our
boatmen, white man and a member of the
fifteenth amendment, answering to the re-
nowned name of Ben Butler-might get
our boat through the shallow parts of the
stream. At the residence of our friend we
found the mosquitoes lively-disposed "to
go for fellow FAST" as my companion ex-
pressed it, though we soon fenced them
out with a good mosquito bar and rested
we'll for the night. 81
fast, we set out on our journey. A couple
of miles travel brought us to the junction
of Bayou Plaquemine and Grand river
(more correctly the Atchafalaya), about
six arpents below which point the line of the
Chattanooga railroad cDOssess the stream,
westward bound, and follows it's south
western bank nearly to the stock landing,
known as Butte a la Rose, from an Indian
mound there, some thirty odd miles distant
by the river. Sending our boat up the
river couple of miles, we went down to
the line and walked along some distance,
that we might see the country, timber, ma
terial, ETC., and know what it would likely
cost to make a road for the " iron horse
through it. The land along the bank of
the stream we found to have been covered
some six feet beneath the flood that swept
over the country in Co and 81, when the
Mississippi river broke through its earthen
fence at Morganza and the big levees
sandy alluvions and the houses, once COM
Portable and happy homes, are fast going
to decay in the thick, smothering grOwths
of willow, ash and cotton wood, gathered
around them, from the spindiiDg switch of
a few feet long. to the stately young tree
of six OF eight inches in diameter-the
wonderful growth of seven short years. A
few acres walk brought us to the edge of
the former clearing, where we entered the
forest OF heavy ash, cypress, gum and
other varieties of timber found in our
lower. Louisiana. In some places the
growtA of heavy timber is dense, others,
again, somewhat open, while in some a
thick underground is crowding up arourd
the mOnarchs of the older forest, who bear
upon their trunks the marks of many q
storm and food, the latter being in some
places through the swamp as much as ten
and twelve feet from the ground. After a I
walk of nearly two miles along the line, we
returned to the river near the point where
we expected our boat, and, finding it near
by, embarked for point higher up the
river.
A miles row brought us to the "First
Traverse platte "a low, flat looking
bayou connecting the river with the
swamps on its northern side. My COM
panion had heard a good deal about the
swamps of Louisiana and their deni-
zens, the mosquitoes and alligators.
Mosquitoes he had seen, heard and
felt, but alligators were something
my suggestion, before leaving this
city, that If he desired to shoot alliga-
tors, he wonld do well to get gun, he
had provided himself with Ballard rifle.
proposed, as We had seen no alligators
yet, that we should leave our skiff and go
up the " fat" where we would find some.
This was eagerly accepted by my COM
panion, and we set out. A few hundred
yards walk brought us in sight OF two, to