﻿FORRESTER'S EVENINGS AT HOME. 249 



Rivers generally have but one outlet, called the mouth. Some 

 have several. The Ganges has eight, all of which are large and 

 deep. The Nile, the Mississippi, and some other rivers, have numer- 

 ous outlets. 



I have spoken of the valleys as the natural beds of rivers. So in- 

 deed they are, yet there are one or two exceptions to this rule, and 

 exceptions worthy of notice. The Mississippi river, the longest 

 stream of water in the world, for hundreds of miles from its mouth 

 runs along on the top of a ridge of land. This may appear strange 

 to you, yet it is a fact. The surface of the land or swamps, on both 

 sides of the river, is considerably below the surface of the water. 

 The water during the annual freshets sometimes breaks over these 

 banks, or levees, as they are called, and thousands of acres of planta- 

 tions, and even towns and settlements, are overflowed. In the spring 

 of 1849, you may remember, there was a large breakage or crevasse in 

 the river bank, and great alarm spread over that portion of the States. 

 Several streets, in the city of New Orleans, were inundated, and it 

 was not until the river had fallen considerably, that the places were 

 stopped. The water stood like large lakes upon the swamps, and 

 for some time many of the roads were under water, and totally im- 

 passable. Geologists tell us that probably the larger part of the 

 State of Louisiana has been made by the Mississippi river. Dur- 

 ing the greater part of the year, the water of this river is thick with 

 mud, washed from the banks, which are continually wearing away, 

 and this is dropped at the outlets, and in time forms land. We can 

 judge pretty w r ell of the truth of this from the fact that the old Balize, 

 a post erected by the French, in 1724, at the mouth of the river, is now 

 two miles and a half distant from the present mouth. When you 

 are old enough to understand Geology, there are many more facts in 

 regard to this river that will interest you. 



Henry. I have heard of underground rivers, but I suppose there 

 is no such thing. 



M. F. Certainly there are many underground streams, one of 

 which I have seen. I was travelling along in the stage, some years 

 ago, in Kentucky, near the line of Tennessee, when all at once a 

 river appeared bursting out from the side of a mountain. We fol- 

 lowed the stream for some distance, and I saw several small mills 



