There are yet several trades which would answer well in New Orleans, such as clever tailors, confectioners, &c. But as almost every article is brought into this country, the mechanics have rather a poor chance of succeeding, and if not provided with a sufficient capital, they are exposed to great penury until they can find customers. This class of people are very little respected, and hardly more so than the people of colour in Louisiana.
Geographical Features of the State of Louisiana.--Conclusion.
Louisiana lies under the same degree of north latitude as Egypt, and bears a striking resemblance to that country. Their soil, their climate, and their very rivers, exhibit the same features, with the exception, that the Mississippi runs from north to south, whereas the Nile takes an opposite course. Close to the eastern bank of the former, we find a continued series of Cyprus, swamps, and lakes, sometimes intersected by a tributary stream of the Mississippi, with elevated banks or hills. Farther towards the east are large tracts of lands, with pinewoods stretching towards the river Mobile, which resembles the Mississippi in every thing, except in size. Further southward, between the Mississippi and Mobile, we find the rivers Amite, Tickfah, Tangipao, Pearl, Pascagola, emptying themselves into a chain of lakes and swamps, running in a south-east direction from the Mississippi to the mouth of the Mobile. Further to the westward is the Mississippi in its meandering course, its banks lined with plantations from Natchez to New Orleans, each plantation extending half a mile back to the swamps. South of New Orleans, is another chain of swamps, lakes, and bayons, terminating in the gulf of Mexico. West of the Mississippi, a multitude of rivers flow in a thousand windings, lined with impenetrable forests of cyprus, cotton trees, and cedars, intermixed with canebrack and the palmetta. In this labyrinth of rivers, the Red-river, the Arkansas, the White-river, and Tensaw rivers are seen meandering. Farther east are the immense prairies of Opelausas, and Attacapas, interspersed here and there with rising farms, forests along the banks of the Red-river, and more to the westward the great prairies, the resort of innumerable buffaloes and of every kind of game. The Red-river, like the Mississippi, forms an impenetrable series of swamps and lakes. Beyond this river are seen pinewoods, from which issues the Ouachitta, losing itself afterwards in the Delta of the Mississippi. Beyond these pine woods, in a north western direction, rise the Mazernes mountains, extending from the east to west 200 miles, and forming the boundary line between east and west Louisiana. To the north and west of the Red-river, the country is dry and healthy, but of inferior quality; to the east we find a chain of lakes; to the south another chain. In summer they dry up, thus affording fine pasturage to buffaloes. In autumn, with the rising of the rivers, they again fill with water. Southward is a continued lake, intermixed with swamps, which terminate at last in the gulph of Mexico.