The town of “Baton Rouge” is situated about 190 miles above New Orleans, and contains a small garrison;—­the esplanade runs down to the water’s-edge, and the whole has a pretty effect.  Here the sugar plantations commence, and the face of the country is again changed—­you find yourself in the regions of the south.  For a distance of from half-a-mile to two miles back, at each side, the land is planted with sugar-canes, and highly cultivated.  The planters’ houses are tastefully built, surrounded by gardens full of orange-trees, flowers, and evergreens, presenting the idea of perpetual spring, which here is indeed the case.  The winters are seldom more severe than a mild spring in England.  I first came in on this region at night, at the season of planting, when the cast or used canes are burned in heaps on each plantation.  The dark turgid waters—­the distant fires, surrounded by clouds of white smoke ascending in winding columns to the skies—­the stillness of the night, interrupted only by the occasional cry of the pelican or the crane, and the monotonous thumping of the steam-boat paddles, formed a strange combination; and had the days of witches and warlocks not long since passed away, one would have sworn that these gentry were performing incantations over the mystic cauldrons, casting “seven bullets,” or “raising spirits from the vasty deep.”

The Mississippi is in few places more than from half-a-mile to a mile wide; and were one to judge of its magnitude by its breadth alone, a very erroneous estimate would be formed.  It is only by contemplating the many vast rivers which empty themselves into the Mississippi that you can form a correct idea of the immense volume of water that flows through this channel into the Gulf of Mexico.  Many of its larger tributary streams have the appearance of being as great as itself—­the depth alone indicating the superiority of this mighty river over every other in America; and, considering its length, perhaps over any other in the world.

The great valley of the Mississippi extends, in length, from the Gulf of Mexico to a distance of nearly 3000 miles; and is in breadth, from the base of the Alleghanies to the foot of the Rocky mountains, about 2,500 miles.  The soil is composed of alluvial deposits, to a depth of from twenty to fifty feet; and I have myself seen, near New Orleans, trees lying in the horizontal position six or seven feet below the surface.  This valley has been frequently visited by earthquakes, which have sometimes changed part of the channel of the river, and at others formed lakes.  Those which occurred between the years 1811 and 1813, did serious injury, particularly in the neighbourhood of New Madrid, near the west bank, below the mouth of the Ohio.  At several points the bank is sunk eight or ten feet below the surface of the adjacent ground, with the trees remaining upright as before.