hours.

Another class of sedimentary formations met with along the banks of the
Mississippi are the battures. There is one remarkable instance of these
in front of New Orleans, which has led to much private dispute, and even
public disturbance, as to ownership. Within sixty years, in front of the
Second Municipality of the city, the amount of alluvial formations
susceptible of private ownership were worth over five millions of
dollars, that is, nearly one hundred thousand dollars per annum, and the
causes which have produced them are still at work, and will probably
remain so. As far back as 1847 these remarks were made upon the subject:
'The value of the annual alluvial deposits in front of the Second
Municipality now is not less than two hundred thousand dollars, and,
with the exception of the batture between the Faubourg St. Mary line and
Lacourse street, all belongs to this municipality.' 'Such a source of
wealth was never possessed by any city before. In truth, it may be said
that nature is our taxgatherer, levying by her immutable laws tribute
from the banks of rivers and from the summits of mountains thousands of
miles distant to enrich, improve, and adorn our favored city.' There are
numerous other examples of the kind going on elsewhere along the river.

But the greatest exhibition of the wonderful character of the
Mississippi, and in which all its singular effects are most distinctly
shown, is in its Delta. For a long succession of years the immense
quantities of sediment, of which we have already spoken, had gradually
precipitated upon this portion of the river until it reached the
surface. Drift now lodged upon it: the decomposition of drift and the
accumulation of other vegetable matter soon furnished a suitable bed for
the growth of a marine vegetation, and now a vast area, a level expanse
of waste land and marsh, is seen extending a great distance into the
Gulf, ramified here and there by the outlets of the river. Indeed, so
rapid have been these formations, that upon the testimony of history,
the Mississippi River to-day is twenty-nine miles farther in the Gulf
than it was in 1754.

Mr. Forshey, an engineer, remarks that 'the superficial area of the true
Delta formation of the Mississippi, or below Baton Rouge, where the last
bluffs are found, is about fifteen thousand square miles, constituting a
region of mean width seventy-five miles, and mean length two hundred
miles. Probable depth of alluvion is