CUT-OFF* AXD STEPHEN.

175

Since my own day on the [Mississippi, cut-offs have been made at
Hurricnne Island; at island 100; at Napoleon, Arkansas; at
AYalnut Bend ; and at Council Bend. These shortened the river, in
the aggregate, sixty-seven miles. In my own time a cut-off was made
at American Bend, which shortened the river ten miles or more.

Therefore, the Mississippi
between Cairo and New
Orleans was twelve hundred
and fifteen miles long one
hundred and seventy-six years
aafo. It was eleven hundred
and eighty after the cut-off of
172*2. It was one thousand
and forty after
the American
Bend cut-off. It
has lost sixty-
seven miles
since. Conse-
quently its
length is only
nine hundred
find seventy-
three miles ab
present,

Now, if I

"wanted to be _

one of those

ponderous scientific people, and * let
on' to prove what had occurred in
the remote past by what had occurred A SCIENTIST.

in a given time in the recent past, or

what will occur in the far future by what has occurred in late years,
what an opportunity is here ! Geology never had such a chance,
nor such exact data to argue from ! Nor * development of species,'
either ! Glacial epochs are great things, but they are vague—vague.
Please observe:—