RUNNING WATERS 
163 
The cloudiness of the Missouri is the natural 
result of its draining the alkaline plains; but 
the turbid condition of many large rivers can 
be traced directly to civilization, the axe, and 
the plough. 
In its normal condition, and as it appeared 
thirty years ago, the sun never-shone on a more 
beautiful river than the Upper Mississippi. 
Then the tall bluffs along the stream were cov- 
ered with timber, the bottom-lands were a mass 
of tropical undergrowth out of which rose ma- 
jestic elms, oaks, maples, and sycamores ; the 
river itself was clear and wound its bright way 
over sand-bars and by many little islands. 
There were no railways stretching along the 
shores, and the small towns that stood by 
the river’s banks had hardly made an impres- 
sion upon the wilderness. All was quite as wild 
and primeval as one could wish, and every 
traveller standing on the deck of the river 
steamer, as he ascended that stream felt the 
freshness of the air, the brightness of the light, 
the unmarred, the unbroken beauty of forest, 
bluff, and shining water. A beautiful river it 
was, and never more impressive than at night 
in storm when the pilot at the wheel was find- 
ing the channel-way by lightning flashes, and 
The 
Upper 
Mississippi. 
