English: This small chart of the mouth of the Mississippi River shows sooundings, shoals, and a logjam in the river. Fort Balise is shown on the west bank and the whole is oriented with north to the upper left. The map appeared in Bellin’s Petit Atlas Maritime, an extraordinary five volume work containing several hundred maps. Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (born Paris 1703, died Versailles 21 March 1772) had a distinguished 50-year career as one of France’s leading cartographers. In 1721 he was appointed hydrographer to the French Navy upon the creation of France's hydrographic office, the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine. Appointed "ingénieur hydrographe" in August 1741, he was also a member of the Académie de Marine and of the Royal Society of London. His maps of the French territories in North America are particularly valuable.