ICG 



OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 



often unbounded by a single horizon, flowing over the banks 

 never to return, and inundating vast tracts of country which 

 owe their existence to the creative power of this grand river, 

 and which finally discharge themselves into the Mexican 

 Gulph by an infinite number of mouths, many of which 

 are, in apparent magnitude, equal to the Mississippi itself; 

 the space embraced by the Delta of this river on the sea coast 

 being, from information, not less than 3° of longitude. 



Table of the mean altitude of the zvaters of the Mississippi at 

 Natchez, from the lowest ebb to the highest elevation. 



January.. 

 February 

 March.... 



April. 



May.. 

 June. 



Days.. 

 .. 1... 

 ...15... 

 .. 1... 

 ...15... 

 .. 1... 

 ...15... 

 .. 1... 

 ...15... 

 .. 1... 

 ...15... 

 ... 1... 

 ... 15.. 



Alt. feet 



25 



30 



35 



40 



.45 



47 



48 



48, 



49 



50 



50 



48 



July 



August. 



Days. 

 ... 1.. 

 ,..15... 



.. 1... 

 ...15.. 



Alt. feet. 



45 



40 



20 



,. 10 



September.. 1 7 



October. 



November. 



December. 



15. 

 , 1. 



15. 

 . 1. 



15. 

 . 1. 

 .15. 



... 5 

 ... 

 ... 

 ... 5 

 ...10 

 ...15 

 ...20 



It is not to be understood that the rise and fall of the Mis- 

 sissippi, in any one year, ever arrives to the extent of the above 

 table; it is found that years of least elevations will generally 

 be those of greatest depressions. The table is calculated only 

 to convey some idea of the extremes which have been noted 

 in a series of years, and of the general progress of the inunda- 

 tion both in its advancement and retreat. 



By information from the inhabitants of the island of New- 

 Orleans, about 25 leagues above the capital, in the year 1774, 

 it appears that the Mississippi had overflowed its banks yearly for 

 three years preceding, by which they had lost their crops, and 



