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National Geographic : 1947 Dec
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The National Geographic Magazine R. I . Nesmith and Associates Seeking New Oil Pools, Prospectors Wade the Marshes This is a "shooting party," out to make seismograph recordings. They de termine subterranean geological structures by use of a sonic device. The lead man carries dynamite; the second carries sticks which are fastened together to lower the explosive into a drilled hole. Third and fourth men carry reels of wire, which connect to geophones spaced at regular intervals of several hundred feet from the shot holes to pick up the echo of the blast and record it on the seismograph apparatus. Depth and contour of formations below are figured out by measuring the time it takes for echoes of blasts at different points to bounce back to the surface (page 709). In widely scattered huts these marsh folk lead lonely lives. Children ride in boats to school and church (Color Plate XVI). Roads are few. Along one road a doctor makes weekly trips. If anyone is sick, occupants hang out a white flag, a signal for the doctor to turn in. This Gulf coast is so low, flat, and storm swept that few towns stand on it. No part of all the United States coastline is so empty of human life. But along its north edge you find such prosperous towns as Houma, Morgan City, Franklin, New Iberia, and Abbeville, and so on west to Lake Charles. End of Evangeline's Trail of Heartbreak New Iberia, on Bayou Teche, was set tled about 1765; today it has some 18,000 peo ple, largely of French and Spanish descent. Visitors come to see its early homes, to enjoy a walk through the Jun gle Gardens of near-by Avery Island, or to go north to St. Martinville for a look at its old Roman Catholic Church and its historic archives and to visit the Evangeline Oak. Film actress Dolores Del Rio played the part of Evangeline, then posed for the Evange line Monument which now marks the grave of Acadian immigrant Emmeline Labiche, who, says tradition, was the original of Long fellow's heartbroken heroine. In its heyday, St. Martinville was known as "Little Paris." In the French Revolution refugees fleeing here included barons, mar quises, counts, and countesses. The minuet was danced; some ladies came to balls in jewel-covered gowns they once had worn at court in France. One faded epitaph reads: "Jne. Aspasie Bienvenue, Espouse de Fre. Olivier Deveron. Decedee le 27 Nov. 1811, agee de 26 ans. Femme respectable et tendre mere." Booming Shreveport Smacks of Texas But what a difference between this tranquil, easygoing Cajun country and such restless boom towns as Monroe and Shreveport, in the northern part of the State. "We're as far from the Gulf coast in our way of life as we are from the China coast," 710
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