from north to south about 340 miles; Breadth, 150, containing nearly 45,000 square miles, or 30,000,000 of acres.

Aspect of the Country, and Nature of the Soil.A chain of islands stretch along the coast, which is indented with bays, and intersected by numerous water courses. From the mouth of Pearl river to the entrance of Mobile bay, the distance is about 100 miles. Twenty-five miles east of the former is the bay of St Louis, ten miles in length, and four in breadth. Its borders are sandy or marshy, and covered with pine or cypress. Two miles east of this bay is Christian Pass, where the coast is elevated and healthy, thence to the bay of Biloxi is twenty-four miles; and the borders of this last are also dry and healthy. The branches of the Pascagoula traverse a tract of four miles in breadth, which is low and marshy, and thence to the Mobile bay, the coast is low, sandy, and covered with pine, a distance of forty-five miles. In general, the soil and appearance of the country are very uninviting, and have been described by the French writers in the most unfavourable colours. But the unfavourable accounts of Dupratz, Dumont, and Charlevoix, who describe the country as a tract of barren sand, producing nothing but pines, and incapable of improvement, apply only to the sea-coast, where the banks of the rivers, to the distance of twenty or twenty-five miles, are nearly on a level with its waters, and the surface being sandy or marshy, and liable to inundation, it is ill fitted for agricultural purposes; but beyond this distance, or the 31st degree of latitude, the soil along the Pearl and

Pascagoula rivers, from one to three miles in breadth, and known in the country by the name of " Swamp," is rich and productive, covered in its natural state with a fine growth of different trees, cotton-wood, gum, oak, bay, laurel, and magnolia, intermixed, in the more elevated parts, with lofty cane, and, in the low, with cypress. Between these borders the soil, to the distance of 100 miles, is generally sandy, and covered with the long-leaved pine; but above this again the surface gradually rises with a deep vegetable mould, which nourishes a fine growth of poplar, oak, hickery, black walnut, sugar maple, buck-eye, elm, hack-berry, &c. Towards the northern line of demarcation, the surface is more unequal, and more fertile; it is of the colour of ashes, and capable of yielding many successive crops without manure. The rocks are calcareous, with some mixture of flint, slate, and sandstone. In the middle parts of the state belonging to the Choctaws and Chickasaws, above the region of the long-leaved pine, there are extensive and rich prairies; one stretches forty miles in length along the road between these two nations. The whole surface between the Mississippi river and Yazoo branch, to the Tennessee river, is rich, well watered, and healthy. The author of the Western Gazetteer (p. 223) "considers the country bordering on this last river, for 100 miles above and below the Mussel Shoals, and for 40 north and south, as the garden of North America, and unquestionably the most favourable to longevity and human enjoyment. The soil is adapted to corn, sweet potatoes, indigo, cotton, esculent vegetables, and fruit

Even wheat will yield a productive crop. But it is the excellence of the waters, mildness and healthfulness of the climate, and proximity to the navigable waters of Tennessee and Tombigbee, that render it the most desirable to new settlers of any of the states or territories within the limits of the Union."

Climate. In a country extending from a low shore, in thirty degrees of latitude, to an elevated surface five degrees farther north, there is necessarily a great difference in the air and climate. Near the Gulf of Mexico it resembles that of the lower parts of Louisiana, the winter is mild, the summer warm, but tempered by sea breezes. The inhabitants of New Orleans, during the prevalence of bilious fever in autumn, find an airy and healthy residence on the high banks two miles east of the bay of St Louis. The bay of Perdido is also said to be very healthy; but along the Big Black river, the Bayou Pierre, and others streams of the Mississippi, the inundations arising from the back current of this river create bilious disorders in autumn. The autumnal fever of Mobile-town is, no doubt, owing to the marshes in its vicinity on the north-western side. With regard to the country watered by the Mobile river, a gentleman, long resident at St Stephen's, informs us, that it is" the most agreeable climate he ever experienced south of his native state, (Pennsylvania.) The diseases are less violent and fewer in number, more easily removed by medicine, than in any country north, west, or south. In this district we find the natives of almost every climate or country; and although they expose themselves to

.

severe labour during every month of the year, they enjoy an unusual degree of health. Notwithstanding the southern latitude, it is an universal remark, that the heat of summer is found less oppressive than in the middle states. The constant prevalence of the seabreeze during the summer from the Gulf of Mexico, together with the elevation of the surface, satisfactorily account for this circumstance; and however extraordinary it may appear, this portion of the country has neither the climate of the Mississippi river, nor that of the Atlantic on the same parallel of latitude." The author of the Western Gazetteer (p. 227) remarks, "that no country can have a more delightful climate than this state. Though some particular places may be considered rather sickly, owing to local causes, yet, generally speaking, it is a healthy country. If bilious complaints are more prevalent than in higher latitudes, still consumptions, pleurisies, rheumatisms, asthmas, and the long catalogue of the diseases of cold climates, are rarely ever witnessed in the Mississippi and Mobile country." The yellow fever appeared at Natches in

the autumn of 1817.

Rivers. The course of the river Mississippi, along the western frontier, is 572 miles, and its branches which water this state are the Yazoo, Big Black river, the Bayou Pierre, and Homochitto, which we shall hereafter describe. The Tennessee river forms the north-eastern boundary, to the junction of Bear creek, a distance of about fifty miles. Pascagoula river has its source near the thirty-third degree of latitude, and runs south 250 miles through the central parts of the

state to the Gulf of Mexico, where it forms a broad bay. Its western branches are the Hatcha Leecha, which enters twenty miles from the gulf, and the Chickesaha, fifteen miles north of the old Florida line, which itself has several branches. From the northeast the Pascagoula receives the Cedar, Pine Barren, and Red Bank creeks, It is boatable 150 miles from its mouth; but its outlet, though broad, is so shallow, that it does not admit the entrance of vessels drawing more than four feet water. Pearl river, which separates this state from that of Louisiana, below the thirtyfirst degree of latitude, rises near the thirty-third parallel, and taking a southern course through the territory of the Choctaw Indians, of more than 200 miles, falls into lake Borgne to the east of lake Ponchartrain. It is the largest stream between the Mississippi and Mobile rivers, and is navigable to the distance of 150 miles from its mouth, but its entrance is obstructed by trees and logs, and has only seven feet water. If this obstruction were removed, small schooners might ascend from the sea to some distance above the thirty-first degree of latitude, near which, in dry weather, the stream is fordable. Lake Borgne, into which this river discharges its waters, is an inlet of the gulf formed by the peninsula which shoots out to the north-east. Yazoo river rises from several sources near the northern boundary of this state, and runs in a south-west course to the Mississippi, which it enters nearly at right angles in latitude 32° 28', 112 miles above Natchez, with an outlet 280 yards wide. In the spring season large boats can ascend fifty miles from its mouth to the junc