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 which he sojourns. These crowds of sepulchres are not the slow accumulation of an age, as a section of these remains is frequently dug up and consumed, to give place to the renewed harvest of death.[246]

The prevailing religion is that of the Catholics; though there is also a handsome church erected by the Presbyterians.[247]

Science and rational amusement is as yet but little cultivated in New Orleans. There are only three or four booksellers to supply this large city and populous neighbourhood. The French inhabitants, intermingled with the African castes in every shade of colour, scarcely exceed them, generally speaking, in mental acquirements. Every thing like intellectual improvement appears to be vitiated in its source, nothing exists to inspire emulation, and learning, as in the West {245} Indies, has no existence beyond the mechanism of reading and writing. Something like a museum was begun in the city a few years ago, but by a protean evolution it has been transformed into a coffee-house for gambling. In another part of the city, an assemblage of specimens of the fine arts, busts, medallions,