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 plains, colossal masses insulated in the most fantastic forms, so as to appear like piles of artificial ruins. Such is the appearance of the saline plains of the Arkansa, and many extensive tracts towards the sources of the Missouri, from Fort Mandan westward to the basis of the Northern Andes.

CHAPTER XVI

Cadron settlement—Arrive at Arkansas—Continue to the Mississippi—The wandering fanatics—Pirates—Natchez—stratification of its site, and remarks on its agricultural productions—The Choctaws—Fort Adams—Point Coupé—Baton Rouge—Opulent Planters—New Orleans.

On the evening of the 18th of December, I again arrived at the Cadron,[212] where four families now resided. A considerable concourse of travellers and some emigrants begin to make their appearance at this imaginary town. The only tavern, very ill provided, was consequently crowded with all sorts of company. It contained only two tenantable rooms, built of logs, with hundreds of crevices still left open, notwithstanding the severity of the season.

Every reasonable and rational amusement appeared here to be swallowed up in dram-drinking, jockeying, and gambling; even our landlord, in defiance of the law, was often the ring-leader of what it was his duty to suppress. Although I have been through life perfectly steeled against games of hazard, neither wishing to rob nor be robbed, I felt somewhat mortified {220} to be thus left alone, because of my unconquerable aversion to enter this vortex of swindling and idleness.