THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 541 



less rapidly. Thus on the Indus, the Missouri and the 

 Lower Mississippi these falls are of continual occur- 

 rence. They are also often seen on the Nile, the 

 Amazon, and other great rivers. 



Now, on the Upper Mississippi, this phenomenon 

 is generally wanting, and we do not remember ever 

 to have seen the banks falling in this way there. In 

 the next place the whole of the Lower Mississippi and 

 a great portion of the Missouri is a river flowing 

 through its " Plains Track," that is to say, the level 

 plains of the surrounding country come up to the 

 very edge of the river, here (in the Lower Mississippi 

 portion) mostly covered in former days by the prim- 

 eval forest, whereas to the northward of its junction 

 with the Missouri, the Upper Mississippi enters its 

 "Valley Track" and runs through a deep wide val- 

 ley, several miles in breadth, from crest to crest of its 

 bluffs, with the clear water stream of the river, here 

 not generally very deep except during floods, flowing 

 through its midst. The scenery in this part of the 

 Mississippi often presents a series of views, alike most 

 striking and beautiful, whereas on its lower portion 

 the scenery is very uninteresting and monotonous. It 

 is a grand river, but as soon as the impression of 

 its vastness, which at first sight always impresses the 

 stranger, has worn off, there is very little worth seeing 

 upon it, all the way from St. Louis to the Gulf of 

 Mexico. The inundations from the Mississippi in former 

 days were very destructive and covered vast areas of some 

 of the richest lands in North America. These visitations 

 have however now been controlled in a great measure by 

 the construction of enormous banks (called levees) enclos- 

 ing the stream and confining it to its proper channel. It 



