88 AUTUMN NOTES IN IOWA 



Sioux City, circa October 5, 1893. 



The group of commonwealths either traversed 

 or bound by the Missouri River includes seven 

 states; the group bearing similar relations to the 

 Mississippi includes ten states. The unique rela- 

 tions to one or both of the great streams of Mon- 

 tana, Minnesota, Missouri, and Louisiana are fa- 

 miliar to everybody, or can be seen at a glance on 

 the map. Missouri and Iowa, again, are the only 

 states among the fifteen which in a geographical 

 sense may be said to possess both rivers. 



A certain kind of half humorous, half serious 

 discussion of the comparative greatness of the 

 two rivers — begun how long ago ? — enters into 

 popular conversation from time to time. Look- 

 ing north and slightly east from this town one can 

 see in imagination the sources of the Mississippi, 

 some three hundred and fifty miles away, in a re- 

 gion of prairie lakes and w^oods. The river re- 

 mains essentially a prairie stream from its source 

 to its meeting with the great tributary if not clear 

 to the sea. Considered locally its channel is an al- 

 most continuous series of curves, but conceived in 

 a large way with reference to the geography of the 

 entire United States, its course for so long a river 

 is in a remarkably direct line. The sources of the 

 Missouri are nearly or quite a thousand miles from 

 these bluffs by which one wanders today. It rises 

 in a mountain region, absorbs the waters of many 



