assemblage from all the adjacent country had taken place, to view the grim and ghastly head of the robber chief. They were not less inspired with curiosity to see and converse with the individual whose prowess had delivered the country of so great a scourge. Among those spectators were the two young men, who, unfortunately for these traitors, recognized them as companions of Mason in the robbery of their father.

It is unnecessary to say that treachery met its just reward, and that justice was also satisfied. The reward was not only withheld, but the robbers were imprisoned, and, on the full evidence of their guilt, condemned and executed at Greenville, Jefferson county.

The band of Mason, being thus deprived of their leader and two of his most efficient men, dispersed and fled the country. Thus terminated the terrors which had infested the route through the Indian nations, known to travellers as the "Natchez and Nashville Trace."

THE State of Louisiana is situated between 29° and 33° N. latitude, and between 88° 50′ and 94° 20′ W. longitude. It is bounded on the north by Arkansas and Mississippi, on the east by Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west by Texas. Its extreme length from east to west is about 292 miles, an. its extreme width from north to south about 250 miles.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The surface of the entire State is low and flat, its highest point being less than 200 feet above the level of the Gulf of Mexico. The southern portion is so low that it is always subject to overflows, when the rivers are full. In the northern part, the country is slightly rolling, except in the northwest, where it is converted into a series of extensive marshes by the Red River and its tributaries.

The Gulf coast is extensive, and is cut up into innumerable bays, lakes, bayous, and inlets. The principal are, Lake Borgne in the southeast, which is, strictly speaking, a bay through which Lake Pontchartrain discharges its waters into the Gulf. Black Lake Bay lies south of this. On the southern coast are (beginning on the east) West, Barataria, Timbalier, Terre Bonne, Pelto Lake, Caillou, Atchafalaya, Cote Blanche, Vermilion bays, and Mermenteau, Calcasieu and Sabine lakes. The majority of these afford excellent harbors. They are principally the extensions of the rivers with which lower

Louisiana is cut up. A number of low islands lie along the coast. Some of them are productive, while others are worthless.

Small lakes are very numerous in the southern part of the State, the whole of which is more or less marshy.

Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain lie in the southeast part of the State, near the city of New Orleans. Lake Maurepas is but an extension of the Amite River and flows into Lake Pontchartrain, which in its turn pours its waters through Lake Borgne into the Gulf. Lake Pontchartrain is about 40 miles long and from 8 to 24 miles wide, and has a maximum depth of from 16 to 20 feet. It is navigable for steamers, and is connected with New Orleans by a canal. Several pleasant towns lie on its shores.

The Mississippi River, already described, forms the eastern boundary of the northern half of this State, as far as the southern line of the State of Mississippi. It then flows southeast through the centre of lower Louisiana, and empties into the Gulf of Mexico, in the extreme southeast corner of the State. It receives the waters of the Red River just above the Mississippi line, and pours its own flood into the Gulf through several channels besides its own mouths. These channels are called bayous, and leave the main stream below the mouth of the Red River, and west of the Mississippi. They empty into the Gulf in the southern part of the State, and are almost all of them navigable for steamers. In this way New Orleans has abundant direct water communication with the southwest parishes. The principal of these are the Atchafalaya and Lafourche rivers or bayous, the former 250, and the latter 150 miles long. The former is more properly an outlet of the Red than of the Mississippi, and is believed to have been the original channel of the Red River. The Red River, already described, flows across the State from northwest to southeast. It is navigable for steamers to the border of Arkansas. Its principal branch, the Washita, flows into it near its mouth, and is 500 miles long. It is navigable for large steamers to Camden in Arkansas, 300 miles from its mouth. The Washita, in its turn, receives the waters of the Tensas, a short distance above its mouth. This river is 250 miles long, and navigable for 150 miles. The Teche River, or Bayou, commences a short distance southeast of Alexandria, on the Red River, and flows southeast into the Gulf of Mexico. It is about 200 miles long, is very tortuous, and flows through a low, flat prairie region in which cotton and sugar grow to great perfection. It is navigable at high water for nearly its entire length. The Cal

casieu River, about 250 miles long, drains the southwest part of the State. It is not navigable. The Sabine River, which rises in Texas, and has a length of about 500 miles, forms a part of the western boundary of Louisiana, and flows into Sabine Lake. It is shallow at its mouth, and navigable only for very small steamers at high water.

MINERALS.

"In the soil and timber are to be found the chief resources of this State, but few minerals, except salt, having as yet been developed or discovered, though some coal, iron, and copper are reported to exist in Union parish. Timber is abundant in all parts of the State, embracing many varieties of oak, ash, cottonwood, cypress, gum, elm, sycamore, pecan, hackberry, pine, etc., and presenting great inducements for development, some of the pine forests capable of producing quantities of turpentine. On one of the islands within the limits of St. Mary's parish-Petite Anse or Salt Island-there exists an immense bed of salt. By boring, parties have proved that the bed is half a mile square, and it may extend a mile orʼmore. They have gone thirty-eight feet into the solid salt, and find no signs of the bottom of the stratum. The surface is about on a level with tide-water, and the earth covers the salt from eleven to thirty feet. On the surface of the salt they found a soil like that of the surrounding marshes, and above this sedge or marsh grass in a good state of preservation. Above the latter the soil appears to be the workings of the hill-des above."

CLIMATE.

The climate is mild as a general rule, but the winters are severer than those of the Atlantic States lying along the same parallel. The summers are long, hot, and dry, and cause a poisonous exhalation from the marshy soil which is the fruitful source of yellow fever. The spring is early and pleasant.

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS.

The best soil is along the rivers and in the marshy district. Almost all the land in the lower part of the State is fertile, but in the northern part, away from the rivers, it is poor. The swamp lands are easily drained, and are almost inexhaustible. Tropical fruits grow well in the southern parishes, but neither the orange nor the sugarcane thrives above the 31st parallel of north latitude, which marks the southern boundary of the western part of the State of Mississippi. In the northern part the fruits of the Middle States thrive.

The Report of the Bureau of Agriculture for 1868 thus speaks of this State:

"Cotton, sugar, corn, and potatoes are the principal crops in Louisiana, and before the war the cultivation of the first two named was very profitable, but our correspondents uniformly represent the production of cotton as ruinous to the planter during the past year. Jackson parish reports two hundred pounds of lint cotton to the acre, fifteen bushels of corn, one hundred and fifty bushels of sweet potatoes, and twenty bushels of peas. Tensas parish, one to one and a half bales to the acre in good season, fifty to seventy-five bushels of corn; in cultivation, nine acres of cotton allotted to one laborer, and five acres of corn. In.Union parish about six bales of cotton to the hand was expected before the war. In Carroll parish cotton will produce