om three to nine miles.
They also all afford sufficient depth of water for commercial purposes,
except at their mouths, which are obstructed by bars. The depth of water
upon one of these is sufficient to pass large vessels; a second, vessels
of less size; and the rest are not navigable at all, as regards
sea-going vessels. These bars, too, are continually changing, according
to the winds or the currents of the river. It is a rather singular fact
that when one of the navigable passes becomes blocked, the river is
certain to force a channel of navigable depth through one of the
others, previously not in use; so that at no one time are all the passes
closed.

In looking into the past, and noticing the changes, it is recorded that
in 1720, of all the passes the South Pass was the only one navigable. In
1730, there was a depth of from twelve to fifteen feet, according to the
winds, and at another time even seventeen feet was known. In 1804, upon
the statement of Major Stoddard, written at that date, the East Pass,
called the Balize, had then about seventeen feet of water on the bar,
and was the one usually navigated. The South Pass was formerly of equal
depth, but was then gradually filling up. (This pass, at present, 1864,
is not at all navigated.) The Southwest Pass had from eleven to twelve
feet of water. The Northeast and Southeast Passes were traversed only by
small craft. Since 1830 the Southwest Pass has been gaining depth. This
and Pass a l'Outre are now the only two out of the five of sufficient
depth to admit the crossing of the larger class of vessels. The former,
however, is the one in most general use. All the other passes, with the
exception of the two mentioned, have been abandoned.

In regard to the changes and numerous singular formations at the mouths
of the Mississippi, we give a statement made by William Talbot, for
twenty-five years a resident of the Balize. He says:

'The bars at the various passes change very often. The channel
sometimes changes two and three times in a season. Occasionally one
gale of wind will change the channel. The bars make to the seaward
every year. The Southwest Pass is now the main outlet used. It has
been so only for three years, as at that time there was as much
water in the Northeast Pass as in it. The Southeast Pass was the
main ship channel twenty years ago; there is only about six feet of
water in that pass now; and where it was d