covering the immense masses of floating and stranded timber, bellowing like angry bulls, and huddled so closely together, that the smaller ones were obliged to get upon the backs of the larger. At one period, great numbers were killed for their skins, which were made into leather for boots and shoes, but not proving sufficiently close grained to keep out the water, the experiment was abandoned. Alligators average from eight to twelve feet in length. Some have been caught, measuring twenty feet.

The fear is often entertained, and sometimes expressed, that the levees of the Mississippi are not sufficient to resist the great body of water that is continually bearing and wearing upon them; and these fears have, in several cases, been realized, though never to any very great extent. In May 1816 the river broke through, about nine miles above New Orleans, destroyed several plantations, and inundated the back part of the city to the depth of three or four feet. The crevasse was finally closed, by sinking a vessel in the breach, for the suggestion and accomplishment of which, the public was chiefly indebted to Governor Claiborne.

In June, 1844, the river rose higher than it had done for many years, marking its whole course, for more than two thousand miles, with wide spread destruction to property and life. It crept over the levee in some places near New Orleans, but caused no actual breach in that vicinity. At Bonnet Carre it forced a crevasse, doing considerable damage and causing great alarm in the neighborhood; but the mischief was not so serious as might have been anticipated, and the embankment has been so increased and strengthened, as to leave but little apprehension for the future.

The interests of Education in Louisiana, though hitherto too much neglected, are now decidedly and perceptibly advancing. In the higher departments, are the College of Louisiana, at Jackson, in East Feliciana; and Jefferson College in St. James parish, on the coast—the former incorporated in 1825, the later in 1831. Both have at various times, received generous donations from the treasury of the state. Franklin College, in Opelousas was also incorporated in 1831, under the same favorable auspices.[2]

There are also several Academies acting under the legal sanction of the State, although not endowed by it. The Ursuline Nuns' School and that of the Sisters of Charity—the latter in the parish of St. James, afford instruction in all the polite branches of female education. The Convent at Grand Coteau near Opelousas, has an average of about two hundred scholars; and efficient persons from France have the control and direction of their education.

The public schools, designed for the general and gratuitous dissemination of knowledge among all classes, have not only increased in number but have generally outstripped those of the higher order, by seizing at once upon all the improvements which the experience of teachers in other parts of the country, and the world, has from time to time suggested. Mere innovations rather hinder than advance the progress of education. But the simplest suggestion of an enlightened experience and a sound judgment, such as are brought to bear upon this great interest throughout the whole of the northern and eastern States, is entitled to the profound regard of the Southern philanthropist, whose aim and ambition it should be, to make the most of every facility and to be no whit behind the older, but not more wealthy sections, in any thing that can promote the moral and intellectual power of the masses of the people.

The climate of Louisiana is hot and moist. In the neighborhood of the marshes, and in the summer season, it partakes of the unhealthy character of nearly all tropical climates. Diseases of the lungs, however, and other complaints so prevalent at the north, are scarcely known; and to many, the quick consuming fever which finishes its work in a few days, may be considered but a fair offset to the slow but sure consumption, which flatters its victims with the semblance of life and hope, while dragging them through its long and dreary labyrinths, to the chambers of death.

This climate is favorable to almost all the productions of the tropics. The sugar, the cotton plant, the orange, the lemon, the grape, the mulberry, tobacco, rice, maize, sweet potato, &c., &c., flourish in rich abundance, and some of them attain to a luxuriance of growth scarcely known in any other part of the world. Sugar and Cotton are the two great staples. The former is confined chiefly to that tract, which, by way of distinction, is called "the coast," lying along the shores of the Gulf, and the bayous of the Mississippi.

The average sugar crop of the whole state, is now about 180,000 hogsheads. That of cotton, for the last year is not ascertained, but the amount produced in the whole valley of the Mississippi, sent to New Orleans for export in 1843, was 1,088,000 bales. Owing to the large extension of the cotton growing districts, and excessive competition in its manufacture, the cultivation of cotton yields less profit than it formerly did, and there seems to be no substantial reason why it should not, in some degree, give place to sugar, at least until the latter can be furnished in sufficient quantity to supply the domestic consumption. Under the ordinary increase of population, the utmost exertions of the cane planters will hardly arrive at such a result, in half a century to come.

While on this subject, it will not, I trust, be deemed irrelevant or officious, to place before the reader the suggestions of an intelligent gentleman of New Orleans, in regard to the present mode of cultivating and manufacturing sugar. He observes that in order to carry on the business to advantage, and compete favorably with those already established, a large capital is required, since in addition to the ground to be cultivated, and the hands to be employed in the field, expensive mills and machinery must be set up, and kept in motion, with a large number of laborers in attendance. Consequently no man in moderate circumstances can undertake this branch of business, as it is now conducted. To obviate this difficulty, and extend the cultivation and manufacture of this important staple, he proposes a division of labor and profit, like that which prevails in the grain growing and milling regions of the north. The farmer sells his wheat, at a fair market value, to the miller, or pays him a stipulated percentage for grinding and bolting. In the same manner might the business here be divided into two distinct branches. The planter might sell his cane to the miller, or pay him the established price for converting it into sugar and molasses. This would enable men of comparatively small means to undertake the cultivation of the cane, who now confine themselves to cotton, and thus relieve the larger cultivators of the latter staple from the dangers of over production.

Casting our eyes back to no very distant period, and noticing the small beginnings of our early planters of cotton, the reader will pardon the introduction of a trifling anecdote. During the year 1784, only sixty years since, and therefore within the memory of many now living, an American vessel, having eighty bales of cotton on board, was seized at Liverpool, on the plea that so large an amount of cotton could not have been produced in the United States. The shipment in 1785 amounted to 14 bales, in 1786 to 6, in 1787 to 109, 1788 to 389, in 1789 to 842. An old Carolina