re prairie Re: SLSL "TSR" swamp

[pynchonoid]

I think it's interesting that "the terraces" also
include what the encyclopedia calls the "prairies of
soutwestern Louisiana", where Fort Roach is located,
well away from the coastal swamps of the lowlands
where Levine and the others go to help after the
hurricane. I think a lot of people who've never been
to Louisiana have the mistaken notion that the state
is all swamp and bayou.  Prairie is also the name
Pynchon chooses for one of the main characters in
_Vineland_. 

"Three types of regions are found in Louisiana:
lowlands, terraces, and hills. The lowlands consist of
the coastal marshes and the Mississippi floodplain
with its natural levees and moderate relief. The Red
River valley has a low elevation relief but with many
raft lakes, built up by impounding water from a number
of log jams, and red soils in association with its
alluvial plain. The terraces include much of the
so-called Florida Parishes above and to the northeast
of the Mississippi and the prairies of southwestern
Louisiana. Upland hills are on either side of the Red
River valley and in the northern portion of the
Florida Parishes; the state's highest elevation, in
northwestern Louisiana, is 535 feet (163 metres) above
sea level."
"Louisiana" Encyclopedia Britannica
<http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=121286>
[Accessed December 5, 2002]. 


-Doug



>pynchonoid quoting Encyclopædia Britannica:
>>"The terraces include much of the so-called
>>Florida Parishes above and to the northeast
>>of the Mississippi...."
>
>"So-called" because "West Florida" (the panhandle)
>formerly extended to 
>the 
>Mississippi.





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