96 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 
and Stppah, are used when describing the most familiar 
things; but these two words, though they are employed 
thus familiarly, when separated—compounded, form the 
most characteristic name we can get of this wonderful 
river. Missah, literally Old big, Sippah, strong, OLp- 
BIG-STRONG ; and this name is eminently appropriate to 
the Mississippi. 
The country through which this river flows, is almost 
entirely alluvial. Not a stone is to be seen, save about 
‘its head-waters; and the dark rich earth “looks eager 
for the hand of cultivation ;” for vegetation lies piled 
? upon its surface with a luxuriant wastefulness that beg- 
gars all description, and finds no comparison for its ex- 
tent, except in the mighty river from which it receives 
its support. This alluvial soil forms but frail banks 
wherewith to confine the swift current of the Mississippi; 
and, as might be imagined, these are continually altering 
their shape and location. 
The channel is capricious and wayward in its course. 
The needle of the compass turns round and round upon 
its axis, as it marks the bearings of your craft, and in a 
few hours will frequently point due north, west, east, 
and south, delineating those tremendous bends in the 
stream which nature seems to have formed to check the 
headlong current, and keep it from rushing too madly 
to the ocean. 
But the stream does not always tamely circumscribe 
these bends: gathering strength from resistance, it will 
