Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 13 



tribution of vegetable and animal life that they deserve a de- 

 tailed description. 



Where the Missouri River enters the state at the northwest 

 corner it meanders for sixty miles through a flood plain of from 

 six to ten miles in width with low, gently sloping bluffs hardly 

 100 feet high anywhere. The alluvial land on the Missouri side 

 extends over a large area, covering one-third of the counties of 

 Atchison and Holt, and smaller areas of Andrew, Buchanan and 

 Pealt Counties. All these bottoms were originally thickly tim- 

 bered with Walnut, Maple, Sycamore, Cottonwood, Elm, Hickory, 

 Oak, Hackberry, Willow, Locust, Boxelder, etc. Below the 

 Nebraska-Kansas line the river encounters harder rock and the 

 floodplain narrows to three or four miles, while the bluffs rise to 

 almost three times their height for a hundred miles, down to 

 near Lexington in Lafayette Co. From there to Glasgow, run- 

 ning through soft shale, the river has carved out a flood plain from 

 six to ten miles in width between low bluffs hardly 100 feet high. 

 Rich alluvial bottoms, in some parts of a marshy nature, and 

 ranging from one to three miles in width, extend for one hundred 

 miles along the great bend of the river in Saline Co. and com- 

 prise one-third of the area of Carroll Co. From Glasgow to St. 

 Charles the Missouri River flows without many windings through 

 hard limestone in a floodplain less than three miles, in some places 

 only two miles wide between steep bluffs 300 and more feet in 

 height. 



The floodplain of the Mississippi River is generally broader 

 than that of the Missouri River, but less than one-half of it is on 

 the Missouri side, the current of the river being mostly near the 

 bluffs of its western shore. The width of the floodplain where 

 the river reaches the state in the northeast, is about eight miles, 

 with bluffs of 250 feet above low water. Bottomland up to three 

 niiles wide, some protected by levees, some subject to overflow, 

 extends through three counties, Clark, Lewis, and Marion. 

 At Hannibal hard limestone causes the floodplain to contract, 

 reaching its minimum width of three to four miles at Louisiana 

 with bluffs over 400 feet high, closely followed by the stream 

 through most of Ralls and Pike counties. In Lincoln Co. the 

 alluvial bottom widens again on our side with land partly pro- 

 tected by levees, partly subject to overflow, and reaches its 

 maximum width in St. Charles Co., where all land east of St. 

 Charles, St. Peters and St. Paul is alluvial, much of it marshy 

 and dotted with ponds and lakes connected by sloughs. 



