ENGELMANN — STAGE OF MISSISSIPPI. 421 



The diagram very graphically exhibits the great elevation 

 the river attains between March and July, and its low stage 

 between August and February. In the first two years of the 

 series this is quite striking, while the last two, 1863 and 1864, 

 showed an unusually low stage throughout ; but, of course, 

 always lower in fall and winter than in spring and summer. 



The long accepted notion that the melting snows of the 

 Rocky Mountains and the elevated plains at their eastern 

 base were the principal cause of the great annual rise in our 

 river, which has been thought to occur generally in June and 

 was therefore popularly known as the "June rise," is undoubt- 

 edly erroneous; for the rise commences and often attains its 

 flood height before the snow water could reach here ; in 1863 

 in March, in 1862 in April; the highest rises however, those 

 above 30 feet, have mostly occurred in June, if we except the 

 rise of April, 1862, and that of April, 1785. Moreover, this 

 snow water in many years amounts to very little ; it may, and 

 no doubt does, swell the upper affluents of the Missouri, but 

 can have a very secondary effect on the great Mississippi itself, 

 as is also proved by the ordinary fallacy of the predictions of 

 high or low water, based upon the quantities of winter snows 

 in the Rocky Mountains. 



The spring and summer rains, which extend over the great 

 plains of the Mississippi valley, are undoubtedly the main 

 source of the rise of the river at that period of the year. The 

 variations of the stage of the river in 1865 present a good illus- 

 tration of this, as both floods, that of March to May, and the 

 second greater one of July and August, correspond with the 

 heavy and extensive rains of those months, especially of March 

 and July. But I repeat that, as a general thing, the rains 

 falling at St. Louis give by no means a sure indication of their 

 volume and extent throughout the upper countries. 



The year 1844 was the year of our great flood, and in it the 

 "June rise" was not to be mistaken. The river reached a 

 height of 20 feet not before April 26, and continued above that 

 stage till August 10, 34 months; on May 14 it reached 25 

 feet, and continued at or above that until August 5, over 2£ 

 months; over a month, from June 13 to July 17, it was higher 

 than 30 feet; for 16 days, from June 20 to July 0, it ranged 

 above 35 feet, and for 8 lull days, June 24 to July 1, it main- 

 tained itself above 40 feet. Accounts of the extent of that 

 flood and the damage done by it may be read in the daily 

 papers of the time; but they ought to be more permanently 

 preserved. 



