beauty is wholly wanting: " The varied windings and intricate bendings of the lakes," says Darby, " relieve
the sameness, whilst the rich green of the luxuriant growth of forest trees, the long line of woods melting
into the distant sky, the multifarious tints of the Willow, Cotton, and other fluviatic trees, rendered
venerable by the long train of waving moss, amaze the fancy." (Darby's " Louisiana," p. 69.)
One not unfrequent incident in the life of the Swamp Cypress is its growing on floating islands
in the creeks connected with the Mississippi, and by its long roots anchoring them and converting
them in time into stationary land. " One of my fellow passengers," says Sir C. Lyell (" Second Visit,"
vol. ii. p. 186), "urged me to visit Lake Solitude, 'because,' said he, 'there is a floating island in it, well
wooded, on which a friend of mine once landed from a canoe, when, to his surprise, it began to sink
with his weight. In great alarm he climbed a Cypress tree, which also began immediately to go down
with him as fast as he ascended. He mounted higher and higher into its boughs, until at length it
ceased to subside, and looking round he saw in every direction, for a distance of 50 yards, the whole
wood in motion.'" On inquiry Sir Charles learned the explanation of this marvellous talc. It appears
" that there is always a bayou or channel connecting, during floods, each deserted bend or lake with the
main river, through which large floating logs may pass. These often form rafts and become covered
with soil supporting shrubs and trees. At first such green islands are blown from one part of the lake
to another by the winds; but the deciduous Cypress, if it springs up in such a soil, sends clown
strono- roots, many feet or yards long, so as to cast anchor in the muddy bottom, rendering the island
stationary."
It is to such a locality as this that M. Bossu refers when one day he had the misfortune to see
his boat hemmed in by the branches of a tree that was set under water; he was benighted in this
disagreeable situation, and obliged to wait for the break of day. But as this river rises and falls by
the floods, he then found himself quite in the air in his boat. They were 25 leagues from the mouth of the
river, but the Mobilian savages that accompanied him comforted him by the hope that the next tide
would set him afloat again; and accordingly the tide, mounting up the river from Mobile Bay, delivered
him from his disagreeable situation in a few hours. (Bossu's " Travels through Louisiana," p. 227, 1781.)
Mr Darby's description of the great raft, 10 miles in length, which choked the Atchafalaya, gives us a
more pleasing idea of such an island than we should have expected : " In the fall season," says he, "when
the waters are low, the surface of the raft is perfectly covered by the most beautiful flora, whose varied dyes,
and the hum of the honey bee, seen in thousands, compensate to the traveller for the deep silence and
lonely appearance of Nature at this remote spot. The smooth surface of that part of the river unoccupied
by the raft, many species of papilionaceous flowers, and the recent growth of Willow and Cotton trees,
relieves the sameness of the picture. Even the alligator, otherwise the most loathsome and disgusting of
animated beings, serves to increase the impressive solemnity of the scene."
But it must not be supposed that in all these Cyprieres the ground is perpetually a swamp as in some:
in many it is so only for a portion of the year. Darby tells us that " the lands that are inundated by the
spring freshes in the low lands of the Atchafalaya remain almost entirely devoid of water on the retiring of
the floods. No portion of woodland in America is more completely without water in the fall season than
this. Miles in succession of those regions that were in former times supposed to be eternally submerged,
are, in fact, eight months of the year almost totally deprived of water for the ordinary necessities of animal
existence. This observation will be found circumstantially correct in all the range that divides the delta
from the prairies, or heights, to 8 or 10 miles distant from either." At the other season all is changed, and
one universal inundation covers everything. From the mouth of the Courtableau to the head of the Cow
Island, the breadth of the overflow between the Atchafalaya, Opelousas, and Allacapas is about 8 miles
wide. This space is an immense lake for many months ; the currents of the smaller bayous are lost in the
maze, and only remain distinguishable by the openings of their channels. The many lakes that mingle
with the outlets of the river, and with each other, render this region most inconceivably intricate. It is with
the
the utmost difficulty that the real channel of even the river can be distinguished from the number of outlets
and inlets that wind in every direction.
Geographical Distribution.—The genera Sequoia and Taxodium exhibit some kindred specialities in
their present geographical distribution. Both are now confined to North America, the one to the east and
the other to the west of the dividing range. Sequoia is restricted to a band along the western side of that
Continent, not penetrating further than 150 miles or so from the Pacific; but it is not an aquatic genus,
nor is its distribution influenced by any apparent necessity to hug the seashore, but it is doubtless owing
to former geological changes. Taxodium, on the other hand, is a semi-aquatic tree, and as it follows the
banks of the rivers, it reaches much farther inland, although nowhere is it found at any great distance from
them.
Their limit in point of latitude is more uniform. Their northern limit is almost identical—about 38°
N. lat. The range of Sequoia Wellingtonia is from 36° to 38° of N. lat., and that of the Red-wood about
the same. Dr Bigelow says that " it is found along the coast mountains of California, from near the region
of Monterey to Russian River above the Bay of Bodega; but whether these are its extreme limits I am
unable to learn " (" Pacific Railroad Report," vol. iv. p. 23); and Dr Torrey gives as its locality "woods in
the coast range of mountains east of Monterey, south of which it is very rare" (" United States and Mexican
Boundary Survey," vol. ii. p. 210); and the latitude of the mouth of the Russian River is 38° 15 , and of
Monterey about 36° 15 . Of Taxodium distichiim, on the other hand, Michaux gives the banks of Indian
River, a small stream that waters part of Delaware, in lat. 38° 50', as its northern boundary; and Nuttal says
" Dr G. Engelman informs me that the most northern station in the west for this tree is at the mouth of the
Ohio, and between Carmel and Vincennes on the Wabash." The latitude of the mouth of the Ohio is 370
N. lat., and that between Carmel and Vincennes, 38° 30' N. lat. The northern limit, therefore, may be taken
as identical in both genera. The southern limit, however, is very different. Instead of being, like the
Sequoias, confined within the brief compass of 120 miles, the Taxodiums go 1500 miles southward, at least
as far as Oaxaca in 170 N. lat. Whether this difference between the Sequoias and Taxodiums may not be
partly due to there being suitable habitats for the latter all along the eastern coast, which there is not for the
former on the western, we cannot say; but one remarkable circumstance is, that at Oaxaca the Taxodium
has penetrated far into the interior, if not actually crossed over the mountains to the western side of the
dividing ridge.
The Mississippi is its western boundary. It crosses, indeed, the actual stream, and is met with on
both sides ; but it does not leave its vicinity, and disappears in a few miles as we go westward. It is in the
swamps along the banks of that river in the Southern States of North America that it especially flourishes.
To quote Michaux :—
" The Mississippi, from its mouth to the river Arkansas, a distance, in following its windings, of more than 600 miles, is bordered with
marshes, which, at the annual overflowing of this mighty stream, form a vast expanse of water. In Louisiana, those parts of the marshes where
the Cypress grows almost alone, are called Cyprieres (Cypress swamps), and they sometimes occupy thousands of acres. As in the Floridas, the
swamps are contiguous to immeasurable plains covered with Pines, or oftener with tall grass or canes mingled with other plants. In the midst of
these I'ine forests and savannas is seen, here and there, a bog or a plash of water fdled with Cypresses, whose squalid appearance, when they
exceed iS or 20 feet in height, proves how much they are affected by the barrenness of the soil, which differs from the surrounding waste only by a
layer of vegetable mould a little thicker upon the quartzy sand. From these particulars, a sufficiently just idea may be formed of the geographical
situations, and of the soil in which the Cypress is found, over an extent of more than 1500 miles, from its first appearance towards the north to the
Mississippi. Towards the south-west, my information does not reach beyond Louisiana, though I have some reason to believe that it is seen as far
as the mouth of the river Del Norte, lat. 26°, which, if we measure the circuit of the Gulf of Mexico, makes a distance of more than 3000 miles."
We can supply the information as to its presence in the Rio del Norte from the " United States and
Mexican Boundary Report" ("Geological Reports" by Dr Parry, vol. i. p. 43). Dr Parry there says—
" The appearance of the Cypress (Taxodium), Sabino of the Mexicans, makes quite a striking change in
the physiognomy of the country " (the lower Rio Bravo del Norte or Rio Grande). " This water and
rock loving tree often appears right in the middle of the swiftest currents of the river, where, having taken
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