- dance of early apples and peaches; but the climate is too
cold in winter for the orange or lemon to the northward of La Fourche, on the Mississippi, below Baton Rouge.
The woods abound with bear and deer, which are sometimes killed and sold by the Indian and white hunters. Wild turkeys on the hills, and water fowl of every description in the swamps are abundant, besides smaller game both four footed and feathered of various descriptions. But the chase, either with dogs or the gun is so laborious an occupation, from the difficulty of getting through the cane brakes and underwood, that one seldom meets with game at the tables of the planters.
{324} The Mississippi, the smaller water courses, the lakes and ponds abound with cat fish of a superiour quality, and a variety of much more delicate and finer fish, yet one seldom meets with them, any more than with game.
In short, the tables of all classes of people have as little variety to boast of as those of any other civilized people in the world. Coffee, although double the price that it is bought for at New Orleans, is by custom become an article of the first necessity, which the wife of the poorest planter cannot do without, and it is of course the most common breakfast. Milk is used to excess, which I have reason to think is an additional cause of the prevalence of bilious disorders.
Proper care and conduct, might in some degree correct or guard against the effects of the climate, and prudence and a well regulated economy, might procure to the inhabitants of the Mississippi territory, almost every comfort, convenience and delicacy, enjoyed in the most favoured countries upon earth.
END OF MR. CUMING'S TOUR
