HOW ARE THE CREVASSES MADE 2 O11

in mud, striving to stop up the crevasse with fas-
cines, branches of trees, and a kind of hemp, made
of a parasite plant, called barbe d’ Espagnol, which
hangs pendant from the trees in long tendrils.
This plant destroys the trees to which it clings, by
absorbing all their sap. When dried, the natives
use it for stuffing mattresses. A little further on,
crossing the Mississippi again, our traveller came
upon another very broad crevasse. ‘These crevasses
(he says) form, in many instances, deep and
dangerous marshes. Willit be believed that the
one of which I am speaking was attributed to
crabs? No doubt crabs are in myriads in this
spot; still, comparing the cause with the effect,
the mystery seems inexplicable. The explanation
given me by a young creole, who was with me at
the time, was this: the crabs make tubular holes
in the earth, which, when prolonged, pierce the
embankment. Through the hole thus formed a
small quantity of water issues, which the pressure
of the river increases at every instant. ‘Should
two of the holes be in juxtaposition, the water by
degrees wears away the earth between them, and
in a short time throws them both into one;
and the volume of water being thus increased, en-
larges its narrow channel, rushes into other crab-
holes, until at length the bank is completely de-

stroyed, and out rushes a river which inundates the
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