Ch. XIX. 



BASIN AND DELTA OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



441 



course, 



including 











ft to 



HE- 

 TEE 



leHa 



i ak 



me or 

 : in the 



Mexic 



ie Bay 

 orard to 



her d 



ie 214 

 he la 



>ne 





its meanders, of more than 3,000 miles. 

 It passes from a cold climate, where the hunter obtains his 

 furs and peltries, traverses the temperate latitudes, and dis- 

 charges its waters into the sea in the region of rice, the 

 cotton plant, and the sugar cane. From near its mouth at 

 the Balize a steam-boat may ascend for 2,000 miles with 

 scarcely any perceptible difference in the width of the river. 

 Several of its tributaries, the Eed River, the Arkansas, the 

 Missouri, the Ohio, and others, would be regarded elsewhere 

 as of the first importance, and, taken together, are navigable 

 for a distance many times exceeding that of the main stream. 

 The surface drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries is 

 equal in extent to more than half the continent of Europe, 

 or Europe exclusive of Russia, Norway and Sweden. 



No river affords a more striking illustration of the law 

 before mentioned, that an augmentation of volume does not 

 occasion a proportional increase of surface, nay, is even some- 

 times attended with a 



narrowing 



of the channel. 



The 



Mississippi is half a mile wide at its junction with the 

 Missouri, the latter being also of equal width ; yet the united 

 waters have only, from their confluence to the mouth of the 

 Ohio, a medial width of about half a mile. The junction of 

 the Ohio seems also to produce no increase, but rather a 

 decrease, of surface."* The St. Erancis, White, Arkansas, 

 and Red rivers are also absorbed by the main stream with 

 scarcely any apparent increase of its width, although here 

 and there it expands to a breadth of 1^, or even to 2 miles. 

 On arriving at New Orleans, it is somewhat less than half a 

 mile wide. Its depth there is very variable, the greatest at 

 high water being 168 feet. The mean rate at which the 

 whole body of water flows is variously estimated ; according 

 to Mr. Forshey the mean velocity of the current at the 

 surface, somewhat exceeds 2£ miles an hour when the water 

 is at a mean height. Messrs. Humphreys and Abbot found 

 at Natchez, a velocity of nearly three miles an hour, at the 

 depth of five feet from the surface. Eor 300 miles above 

 New Orleans the distance measured by the winding river is 

 about twice as great as the distance in a right line. For the 



* Flint's Geography, vol. i. p. 142. r " 



