186 OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 



the Mississippi, the surface of the earth may be raised to a great 

 height, far above the general level of the inundation : travellers 

 inform us that the towns and villages of the Delta of the Nile are 

 built upon elevated situations, which are so many islands during 

 the season of the inundation. How shall we account for the for- 

 mation of those islands? we have no reason to believe that they 

 pre-existed in the Delta, and they could not be formed by the 

 natural agency of the inundation; the accumulation of earth by 

 mere labor for the formation of so many islands would have 

 been an Herculean task; it is therefore more rational to suppose 

 that the ingenuity of the aborigines of ancient Egypt, directed by 

 the example of nature herself, pursued the more simple and fa- 

 cile mode of elevating the site of their habitations in the manner 

 above described. 



We shall conclude the above imperfect sketch by observing, 

 that it is the result of occasional observation for a series of years, 

 and of scattered information collected from various sources, pro- 

 bably often uncertain, from a cause which is unfortunately too 

 general; viz. the extreme inattention of persons, even of some 

 education, to the most curious phenomena passing daily under 

 their review. 



Circumstances did not favor the investigation of several points 

 of curious enquiry. It would be desirable to ascertain the 

 obliquity of the inclined plane by which the Mississippi conveys 

 its waters to the ocean, both at the surface and at the bottom 

 of the river, and at various distances from its mouth; as also 

 the respective velocities of the water in those positions, at low 

 and high water. The difference of the velocities of the water 

 at and under the surface, was turned to account by an ingeni- 

 ous master of a vessel, who, finding himself detained in his de- 

 scent by a calm, dropt his anchor ten or a dozen fathom below 

 the surface, by which his vessel was so much retarded in the 

 stream as to enable him to steer sufficiently to keep clear of the 

 shore. This hint might perhaps be improved to advantage : a 

 much more perfect instrument than an anchor may be invented 

 for the purpose of holding the inferior current, and in situations 

 similar to the Gulf-stream, a vessel may thereby be enabled to 

 escape an enemy. 



