. Picturesque America; or, The land we live in. A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cañons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country . cions of the best families of France, whosehistoric names are still preserved, who shed over their simple settlements in the far-offwilds of the Mississippi something of the style pertaining to the villa and chdteau. In 276 PICTURESQUE AMERICA. course of time many of these old mansions along the river have disappeared, or, fallinginto the possession of the irreverent Anglo-Saxon, h
. Picturesque America; or, The land we live in. A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cañons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country . cions of the best families of France, whosehistoric names are still preserved, who shed over their simple settlements in the far-offwilds of the Mississippi something of the style pertaining to the villa and chdteau. In 276 PICTURESQUE AMERICA. course of time many of these old mansions along the river have disappeared, or, fallinginto the possession of the irreverent Anglo-Saxon, have had their outward faces buriedunder broadly-constructed verandas and galleries—nice places for shade and promenade,but sadly incongruous, and painfully expressive of a sudden growth. The Mississippi, left to itself for hundreds of miles above its mouth in the spring-floods, would overflow its banks from two to three feet. To obviate such a catas-trophe, there has been built by the enterprising planters a continuous line of levee, orearth-intrenchments, upon which slight barrier depends the material wealth of the alluvium, or sediment, of the river, which is deposited most abundantly upon its. Market-Garden on the Coast. banks, makes the frontage the highest surface, and, as you go inland, you unconsciouslybut steadily descend, at least four feet to the mile, until you often find the water-levelmarked on the trees at times of overflow far above your head. When the spring-floodis at its height, a person standing inside of the levee has the water running above him,and, if he glances at the houses in the rear, the level of the flood will possibly reachthe height of the second-story windows. For nine months of the year the Louisiana planter pays but Httle attention to thelevee, but, when the spring comes, and the melted snows, which fall even as far off asthe foot of the Rocky Mountains, find their way past his residence to the sea, he issuddenly awakened to the mo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1872
