Apalachicola Rivers: The shore of Lake Pontchartrain, from Lakeport to Pass Manchac, is swampy and contains many small bayous, most of them too insignificant to be worthy of a name. They are, however, very serviceable to blockade-runners, being navigable for small skiffs, which can be loaded from New Orleans while lying in the swamp, and run out into and across the lake to any point on the shore. A very extensive business was formerly done in this way, but most of the boats have been captured by the naval vessels on the lake. The navigable streams between Pass Manchac and Pearl River are the Tickfaw and Tangipahoa Rivers, only navigable a short distance; the Tchefuncta River, navigable to Covington, about twenty miles; Bayou La Combe, navigable ten miles; Bayou Bonfouca, navigable ten miles by the Vincent Branch and eight miles by the Liberty Branch. These streams empty into Lake Pontchartrain and are only navigable for vessels of light draught. The land on the coast is marshy, with the exception of a few points, as at Lewisburg and Mandeville, the only towns immediately on the shore. There are roads running back into the country from Madisonville (three miles from the mouth of Tchefuncta River), westerly to Baton Rouge, northwesterly to Clinton, northeasterly to Covington (Thence northerly into Mississippi and easterly to Gainesville and Mobile), and southeasterly to Lewisburg, Mandeville, Bayou La Combe, Bonfouca, and west Pearl River, connecting with the road leading from Covington to Gainesville. Pearl River is navigable to Jackson, Miss., at high water with light-draught steamers. In low water it is only navigable forty miles, but there is sufficient depth of water that distance for almost any vessel. Between pearl River and Mobile are the Jordan River, navigable twenty-five miles, wolf River, navigable twenty miles (but very shallow at the mouth), and the Pascagoula River, which is navigable at high water as far as Enterprise, Miss. The coast is low and sandy. The towns on the coast are Shieldsborough (or Bay of Saint Louis), Pass Christian, Mississippi City, Biloxi, and Pascagoula. From each of these towns are roads running northerly and crossing the old mail route from Baton Rouge to Mobile, about thirty miles from the coast. There is also a road running along the coast, but it is broken by water at Bay of Saint Louis, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, at which places there are no ferries. From East Pascagoula a road runs direct to Mobile, which is good in dry weather, crossing no streams except one about ten yards in width, across which is a corduroy bridge. It runs through Pascagoula Swamp, which is four miles in extent and bad in wet weather. With this exception this road is always good, leading through an open, piney woods country, a distance of forty-five miles.

At Spring Hill the road diverges, running through the intrenchments at three different points, and thence into the city. Between Mobile and Apalachicola are the Tensas, Perdido, Escambia, Yellow Water, and Choctawhatchee Rivers. The Apalachicola is navigable to Chattahoochee, at the junction of the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers, a distance of eighty miles. At its mouth is a deep and safe harbor. The important roads are one from Pensacola to Mobile, one from Pensacola to Milton, thence northerly into Alabama, also easterly through Euchee Anna, Roches Bluff, and Marianna to Chattahoochee; one from Apalachicola, running westerly to Saint Joseph, thence northerly to Marianna, and one from Apalachicola Bay (opposite the town), running northerly on the east bank of the river to Chattahoochee, said to be a good road. In seven parishes of Eastern Louisiana, thirteen counties of Southern