IG8 OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 



The waters of the Mississippi are not, at any time, perfectly 

 transparent: during the absence of the inundation, they are 

 not much troubled, presenting a slight milky appearance, which 

 is attributed to the Missouri; but during the time of the inun- 

 dation, all the rivers which discharge their superabundant waters 

 into the Mississippi are more or less charged with terrene matter, 

 and during the decline of the inundation, the turbidness is some- 

 times so great that a glass filled with its water appears to depo- 

 sit, in a few minutes, a sediment equal to one eighth of its bulk; 

 this extreme impurity is not to be attributed entirely to the im- 

 mediate effect of the Missouri, but principally to the falling in 

 of the mud banks, either newly formed beneath the influence 

 of the current of the river; or undermined by its rapidity, 

 perpetually changing its bed, by enlarging the concavity of its 

 bends, and projecting its points or head lands: this operation has 

 a natural tendency to lengthen the circuitous course of the river; 

 but the effect is amply compensated by its own progress; for 

 the enlargement of the bends frequently brings them so near 

 each other, that the weight of the waters bursts at once through 

 the solid soil, forming in a few days a new bed' capable of con- 

 veying the whole waters of this mighty river, and shortening 

 thereby its course many leagues. The disruption which took 

 place at Point Coupee, cut off ten leagues, and within this 

 territory the cut-off at the Homochito has thrown to the east 

 of the Mississippi an island of seven leagues in circuit, and at 

 the Yazooz a similar effect has been produced on the west side 

 by the formation of an island of five leagues in circumference. 

 Those islands are now both converted into peninsulas, by the 

 formation of new land across one of the mouths of the old 

 channel, while the other is partially kept open by the discharge 

 of the (comparatively) small rivers of the Yazooz and Homo- 

 chito; the former of those, nevertheless, is not inferior in magni- 



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tude to that .great commercial river the Thames. The conse- 

 quence of those disruptions, is the formation of lakes, which, 

 in process of time, may be far removed from the actual chan- 

 nel of the river, and in effect are now found to be scattered in 

 all situations over the immense valley of the Mississippi. 



When those lakes are first approached, they present so per- 

 fect a resemblance of the Mississippi, with regard to breadth, 



