Year: 1875

lrToh hcufth anu honie'J


1t was on the last day of the year, and
twelve years ago, that / first beheld the
scene which believe has not its parallel
in the United States-the .embouchure
of the Mississippi at Southwest Pass.
and one might travel the whole conti-
nent over, and, returning here, truth
fully say that he had nowhere seen any
natural situation so curious as this.


The good bark "Voltigeur," which
for two weeks had carried me safely from
Port Royal across the Gulf stream T;
thence threading the green, shallow
waters and narrow, tortuous passages of
the Bahamas; thence skirting the coast
of beautiful Cuba, rounding the Florida
Cape, and passing the sandy barrenness
OF Ship Island, was now swinging the
anchor on the hither side of the bar that
lies off the Pass. A very troublesome bar
it is, formed by the long accumulation of
earth deposits brought down by the
mighty current of the great river. Lying
directly across the mouth of the Pass, it
is pierced by but one navigable channel,
so narrow that the assistance of pilot is
always necessary to clear it; and / re-
member one occasion when the keel of
the great steamer in which was crossing
it hung fast upon the bar, midway over,
and was only released after hours of tug
ging with the engine and shifting the
ballast.


Looking from the deck of the Voltigcur,
saw an immense and desolate area of
brownish reeds and grasses, having cx-
actly the appearance of n swamp covered
with a compact growth of wild vegeta-
tion. 1t did not flower and blossom; it
was everywhere of the same sombre hue,
and as lonely in appearance as could be
the heart of Sahara itself The river cleft
it where il rolled down through this
Pass a mighty volume of turbid water !;
and as gazed at the forbidding prospect
it was with difficulty that | could per-
suade myself that this was the gateway
to the broad road and fertile valley of
the Mississippi, teeming with the pro-
ducts and population of half great
nation. But what must have been the
astonishment, what the wondering de-
light of the first explorers who sailed
into this swampy desOlatiOn to find
themselves, after passing fifty miles of it,
i'm that paradise of nature to which
French loyalty afterward gave the name
of Louisiana-to pass from this dreary
orange-groves, with tropical flora and
vegetation, and to hear the song of the
mocking-bird in welcome!


But short distance from the shore,
where the rushing tide of the river is
precipitated upon the gulf, novel spec
tacle is presented, which at once arrests
the eye of the stranger. The water of the
river, tinged by the immense quantities
of soil that it carries down, is ofa turbid,
earthly color; that of the gulf is the same
black-blue everywhere presented by deep
saltwater. That the one is comingled
with and lost in the other must mani
festly be true; but how it is done is not
at all apparent to the spectator. Water
and oil do not more absolutely refuse to
mingle than do the surface waters of the
Mississippi and those of the gulf. The
long, regular line of demarcation is as
sharply drawn between them as q line
with a lead-pencil can be drawn upon
white paper; uponrone side the water is
of dark yellowish color, upon the other
deep blue-black; neither infringes at
all upon the. other, but there they lie side
by side, like sullen brothers of the same
family refusing to be united. The con-
trast under flood of sunlight is not
only novel; it is absolutely startling.
Of course science can readily explain the
phenomenon but it is not comfortable
to me to be told by science that all the
pet mysteries of nature which my jour
neyings have shown me are in fact no
mysteries at all; and / am content not
to "----in all things look for the how
and the why and the wherefore"


JAMES FRANKLIN Fits.


cit is supposed that the Spaniards under Muscoso,
the successor of DE Soto first had this pleasant