184 Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River. 
the coast, and the changes that have taken place in the present 
geological age, have been surmised. 
The Report exhibits in detail the investigation of each of these 
subjects, and many others not enumerated in this letter. Based 
upon extended survey and investigation in the field, made at 
times under circumstances of great exposure, it contains the re- 
sults of many years labor, comprising laborious office 
—— research, patient investigation, and exhaustive mental 
ort. 
The first chapter treats of the great basin of the Mississippl 
River as well as the basins of its numerous tributaries, their 
slope, dimensions of cross-section, range, navigation, succession 
San topography, geology and growth of the bottom lands, 
s 
: t th 
Missouri and Upper Mississippi. It has eight principal tributa- 
ries, which, in the order of the magnitude of their basins, af 
t i kansas, the 
Red, the. White, the Yazoo, and the St. Francis. It may excite 
some psd be that the two latter are included in this category; 
i 
but it will be hereafter seen that, although comparatively er 
ing. As it is proposed to state, in this chapter, such facts 
