Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/104

96 for several months in the year, but filled with cypress and jack brush. From Plaquemines to the Passes is twenty-four miles, where the river branches into three parts. These branches are called Passes, and distinguished, by the east, south, and west Pass, The land in this distance is mostly clothed with jack bushes and tall weeds. From these branches to the sea is about twenty miles, and the land has the appearance of a vastly extended marsh, destitute of trees or shrubs, but covered with long grass.

The East Pass, at the distance of six miles, divides into two branches. The eastern is called Pass a la Loutre, and the other Belize. On the Belize is a small black house, called by the same name, and near it are a number of houses, occupied by pilots. Large ships, bound up the river, enter it by this Pass; there being the greatest depth of water on the bar. At the entrance of this Pass about sixteen feet of water may be carried over the bar. The bars lie without the mouths of the Passes, are very narrow, and immediately after passing them the water deepens to six or seven fathoms. The South Pass, which is directly in front of Mississippi, has been almost entirely choaked with drift wood, but has about ten feet of water on the bar. The West Pass, which is the longest and narrowest, and used to be the passage by which large ships entered the river, had some years ago eighteen feet, but is