306 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



following streams, which unite in the channel of the Lower Mississippi, and pour down 

 through it into the Gulf of Mexico : 



St. Peter's - 



Penaca, or Turkey - 



Iowa 



Chacaguar 



Des-moines - 



St. Croix 



Chippewa 



Wisconsin 



Rock River - 



Illinois 



Salt - 



Missouri 



Yellowstone 



Little Missouri - 



Shienne - 



Quicourt 



Platte - 



Kansas - 



Osage 



Gasconade 



Jacques - 



Sioux 



Grand - 



Chariton 



Miles. 

 500 

 200 

 350 

 200 

 600 

 300 

 300 

 GOO 

 450 

 500 

 250 

 3300 

 1000 

 3OO 

 3OO 

 500 

 1200 

 800 

 500 

 30O 

 600 

 500 

 500 

 200 



Kaskaskia 



Maramec 



St. Francis - 



White 



Arkansas 



Canadian 

 Neosho - 



Red River - 

 Washita - 



Ohio- 



Alleghany 



Monongahela 



Kanawha 



Kentucky 



Green 



Cumberland 



Tennessee 



Muskingum 



Scioto 



Waybash 



White River 



Hatchy 



Yazoo 



Big Black - 



Miles. 



300 



200 



450 



600 



2500 



1000 

 800 



2000 

 800 



1250 

 350 

 300 

 450 

 360 

 3OO 

 600 



1500 

 200 

 200 

 550 

 200 

 200 

 300 

 200 



The most beautiful tributary of the Mississippi is the Ohio, the Belle riviere of the 

 early French settlers, the only large river it receives from the east. No stream rolls 

 for the same distance so uniformly and peacefully ; its banks are adorned with the largest 

 sycamores, its waters clear, and studded with islands covered with the finest trees. All 

 the other great tributaries flow from the west, its confluence with the Missouri, which 

 enters it like a conqueror, and carries its white waves to the opposite shore, presenting 

 one of the most extraordinary views in the world. The country around these vast 

 watercourses is of the most varied description, alternately exhibiting wild rice lakes and 

 swamps, limestone bluffs and craggy hills, deep pine forests and beautiful prairies, the 

 prairies showing an almost perfect level, in summer covered with a luxuriant growth of 

 grass and flowers, without a tree or a bush, the only tenants of which are elks and 

 buffaloes, bears and deer, and the savages that pursue them. The bluffs of the Mississippi 

 are for the most part perpendicular masses of limestone, often shooting up into towers 

 and pinnacles, presenting at a distance the aspect of the battlements and turrets of an 

 ancient city. In the season of inundation below the mouth of the Ohio, the river presents 

 a very striking spectacle. It sweeps along in curves or sections of circles, from six to 

 twelve miles in extent, measured from point to point, and not far from the medial width 

 of a mile. On a calm spring morning, and under a bright sun, this sheet of water shines 

 like a mass of burnished silver, its edges being distinctly marked by a magnificent outline 

 of cotton wood trees, at this time of the year of the brightest verdure, among which 

 those brilliant birds of the country, the black and red bird, and the blue jay, flit to and 

 fro, or wheel their flight over them, forming a scene which has all of grandeur or beauty 

 that nature can furnish, to soothe or enrapture the beholder. The curvilinear course 

 of the Mississippi is one of its most striking peculiarities. It meanders in uniform bends, 

 which, in many instances, are described with a precision equal to that obtained by the 

 point of a compass. The river sweeps round the half of a circle, and is then precipitated in 



