tinct impressions. We seemed floating, as it were, on
the waters of chaos, where mud, trees, boats, were carried along swiftly
by the current, without any additional impulse of a steam-engine,
puffing itself off at every stroke of the piston. The whole voyage to
New Orleans had some analogy to the recollection of a gay dream, in
which objects were recollected as a long line of loosely-connected
panoramic fragments.

At New Orleans, where I remained several days, I took passage in the
brig Arethusa, Captain H. Leslie, for New York.

While at anchor at the Balize, we were one night under apprehensions
from pirates, but the night passed away without any attack. The mud and
alluvial drift of the Mississippi extend many leagues into the gulf. It
was evident that the whole delta had been formed by the deposits made in
the course of ages. Buried trees, and other forms of organic life, which
have been disinterred from the banks of the river, as high, not only as
New Orleans and Natchez, but to the mouth of the Ohio, show this. It
must be evident to every one who takes the trouble to examine the
phenomena, that an arm of the gulf anciently extended to this point; and
that the Ohio, the Arkansas, Red River, and other tributaries of the
present day, as well as the main Mississippi, had at that epoch entered
this ancient arm of the gulf. I landed at the light-house at the Balize.
We had to walk on planks supported by stakes in the water. A sea of
waving grass rose above the liquid plain, and extended as far as the eye
could reach. About twelve or fourteen inches depth of water spread over
the land. A light-house of brick or stone, formerly built on this mud
plain, east of the main pass, had partially sunk, and hung in a diagonal
line to the horizon, reminding the spectator of the insecurity of all
solid structures on such a nascent basis. The present light-house was of
wood. It was evident, however, that here were deposited millions of
acres of the richest alluvion on the globe, and in future times another
Holland may be expected to be rescued from the dominions of the ocean.
As we passed out into the gulf, another evidence of the danger of the
channel met our view, in the wreck of a stranded vessel. The vast stain
of mud and alluvial filth extended for leagues into the gulf. As the
vessel began to take the rise and swell of the sea, I traversed the deck
diligently, and, by dint of perseverance in keeping the deck, escaped
sea-sic