232 Geographical Notices. 
it is 45 feet; at Louisville, 42 feet on the falls and 64 feet below them; 
at Evansville, 40 feet; at Paducah, 51 feet; and at the mouth of the 
river, 51 feet. The usual range does not exceed 25 feet.” 
7. Yazoo Basin.—The Yazoo basin, having an area of 18,850 
square miles, consists of the Yazoo bottom and its watershed. 
The Yazoo bottom is an alluvial tract, oval in shape, bordering on 
the Mississippi between Memphis and Vicksburg. _ It consists of 
6800 square miles of lands liable to be submerged, 310 square 
miles of ridges and 6740 square miles of lands draining into the 
bottom. It is in general a vast densely timbered plain, slopin 
from the Mississippi toward the east at a mean rate of about 0° 
of a foot per mile. ere are three classes of land in the Yazoo 
bottom, “high land,” rarely overflowed, middle land, overflowed 
during the wet season, and the low “cypress swamps,” 
which always contain water. 
The Yazoo river, from its proper source, Horn Lake, to the 
Mississippi, is about 500 miles long, and is navigable 240 miles 
to Greenwood, for boats drawing two or three feet. Indian 
than is generally supposed to the discharge of the river. 
awa’s sectional map of Missouri, is 5470 square miles. This estimate 
includes all the country between the Missouri and Cape Girardeau, on the 
right bank, which drains directly into the Mississippi. ct 
Kaskaskia basin,—Under this head is included all the region draining 
into the Mississippi on the left bank, between the mouth of the ore 
and the mouth of the Ohio. It is named from its principal stream, § 
though there are others of considerable size—the Big Muddy, — 
stance. The country is mainly prairie, but, upon the immediate bank o 
the Mississipp:, a considerable area is liable to inundation in great 
The “ American bottom,” between the mouths of the Missouri and Kas 
kaskia rivers, contains the greater part of this swamp country, but there 
is another limited belt above Cairo. The area of the whole basin * 
about 9420 square miles. : 
The Kaskaskia river itself resembles the Illinois. It flows with 4 “— 
crooked course through a heavily timbered alluvial bottom, liable to 
overflowed to a depth of eight or ten feet in freshets. Its bed 1s § 
dry in the summer, but when high the stream has a strong current. 
? Ata medium stage of water, a rise of one foot on the falls makes @ rise of 
about three feet below them, until the water on the falls is about five feet deeP- 
Subsequently, the rate of rise below is rather less than two feet. 
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