With the Rio Grande del Norte, ought the southwestern emigration of the people of the United States to find an eternal ne plus ultra; and in all probability this river will become a line of demarkation between two great portions of mankind.

GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION

OF

LOUISIANA.

CHAP. II.

EXTENT, LIMITS, NATURAL AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS, CLIMATE, GENERAL DIVISIONS OF SOIL, AND VEGETABLE

PRODUCTIONS.

LOUISIANA, as ceded by France to the United States, is bounded south by the Gulph of Mexico; east by the Mississippi and Perdido rivers; north, by the State of Mississippi, and an imaginary line, nearly coinciding with the northernmost part of the 49th degree of north latitude; west, by the Chippewan mountains*; and southwest, by the Spanish internal provincest. This great expanse has a frontier with the Spanish internal provinces of 1500 miles; along the Chippewan mountains of 500 miles; a frontier with the British dominions of 1300 miles; thence following the Mississippi from its source to the 31° of N. lat. by comparative course 1400

* In the first edition of this work, I designated this chain Missouri Mountains; but have since seen and read Dr. Drake's excellent work on Cincinnati, wherein they are called Chippewan. As this is the native Indian name, I have adopted it, as much more appropriate than an adjective name from one of the rivers which those mountains produces.

†The place where la Salle landed in 1683, ought to be by United States' writers considered as decisive of the S. W. limit of Louisiana.,

CHAP. IL]

GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION, &C.

31

miles; thence along the line of 31° N. lat. to the head of the Perdido river, 240 miles; thence along that river to its mouth, 40 miles; and along the Gulph of Mexico 700 miles: having an outline of 5680, or 5700 miles, in round numbers, and 945,860 square miles of surface.

Louisiana is now divided into three sections:

The STATE OF LOUISIANA, bounded by the Gulph of Mexico on the south; by the Sabine river and a meridian line from 32° to 33° N. lat. on the west; by the territory of Missouri and the state of Mississippi, north; and by the latter and Pearl river, east. The state contains 45,860 square miles of area, and is watered by the Mississippi, Red, Ouachita, Atchafalaya, and Pearl rivers, together with numerous other streams of lesser note.

The TERRITORY OF MISSOURI. This latter section, which was formerly denominated Upper Louisiana, is bounded, east by the Mississippi river; south, by the 33° N. lat. and the province of Texas; and south-west by the Spanish internal provinces; west, by the Pacific ocean; and north, by the British dominions. It contains an area of 800,000 square miles.

PROVINCE OF TEXAS. That part of Louisiana, known by the name of the Province of Texas, which is claimed by Spain as part of the internal provinces, and included in the vast intendancy of San Louis Potosi, is bounded east by the state of Louisiana; south, by the Gulph of Mexico; west, by the Rio Grande del Norte, and north by Red River, containing an area exceeding 100,000 square miles.

Beside these three grand divisions of Louisiana, there is a small section of 7000 square miles, bounded west, by Pearl river; east, by Perdido river; north,

by the thirty-first degree of north latitude; and south, by the Gulph of Mexico. This section now forms part of the state of Mississippi and Alabama Territory.

This great expanse may be briefly described as occupying the western slope of the valley of the Mississippi, and the inclined plane, over whose surface flows the small rivers that disembogue themselves into the Gulph of Mexico, east of the Mississippi as far as the Perdido, and west of the Mississippi to the Guadaloupe.

The Chippewan mountains, dividing the waters of the Mississippi from those of Columbia, form the principal chain in Louisiana; collateral ridges extend themselves from the parent chain, which, in the valley of the Mississippi, generally wind to the S. E. and give that direction to all the rivers that enter either the Missouri, Mississippi, or Mexican Gulph. The courses of the Missouri and Mississippi, are in a great measure conformable to this system. In the wide slope from the Rio Grande del Norte to the Missouri, nature has been more uniform than on any equal extent on this globe; the courses of all the rivers accommodate themselves to each other with a regularity that would seem the result of artificial arrangement; the spurs of the Taous*, though of little elevation, are regular, gradually sinking, until lost in the margin of the alluvial region of the Mississippi and gulph of Mexico. West of the main chain, other ridges run parallel, leaving long narrow vales between them: thus this great range

of

* Taous is the name given by the Spanish colonists to the mountains, from which flow the Rio Grande, Red, and Arkansa rivers eastward, and the Colorado of the gulph of California, and most probably the Multnomah to the westward; they are a prolongation of the Chippewan.

mountains, throwing out ramifications on each side, which, with various inclinations to the parent spine, form the most prominent features in the physiognomy of Louisiana. It is very difficult to establish any systematic classification of the different features of Louisiana; the general division into alluvial and prairie, admits of so many exceptions, as to render its adoption rather the source of error than of distinct elucidation. Mountains being in all countries the most prominent and durable features in nature, and less capricious in their arrangement, afford the most accurate outline; mountains, when carefully examined, have been found to conform to each other with singular exactness, the main chains protruding their lateral embranchments like the spine and ribs of an animal.

We find Louisiana supported on the west border as if by a Buttress, by the great chain of mountains that give source to the Missouri and Columbia rivers*.

The ridges that intervene between the various streams on the east side of this chain, are branches running generally south-east, having a gradual depression towards the Mississippi.

On viewing a general map of North America, will instantly be seen an inclined plane, extending from the Mexican gulph to the head waters of the Missouri and

* This chain, the same with that of Anahuac, ought to receive some distinctive term to disignate the principal spine in Louisiana. Snowy, rocky, sandy, and other attributes common to all mountains of any considerable elevation, ought to be rejected as improper terms, when used as descriptive appellations. Without having the presumption to attempt the introduction of a name in geography, we will, to express our meaning without circumlocution, give this chain the name of the Chippewan mountains. Adopting this method of discrimination, by a general term, much confusion will be avoided.