Rocky Mountains. 43 



consisting of recent alluvion and covered with dense forests. 

 At the time of our journey, the spring floods having subsid- 

 ed in the Ohio, this quiet and gentle river seemed to be at 

 once swallowed up, and lost in the rapid and turbulent cur- 

 rent of the Mississippi. Floods of the Mississippi, happening 

 when the Ohio is low, occasion a reflux of the waters of the 

 latter, perceptible at fort Massac, more than thirty miles 

 above. It is also asserted that the floods in the Ohio occa- 

 sion a retardation in the current of the Mississippi, as far up 

 as the little chain, ten miles below Cape Girardeau.* The na- 

 vigation of the Mississippi above the mouth of the Ohio, 

 also that of the Ohio, is usually obstructed for a part of the 

 winter by large masses of floating ice. The boatmen ob- 

 serve that soon after the ice from the Ohio enters the Mis- 

 sissippi, it becomes so much heavier by arresting the sands, 

 always mixed with the waters of that river, that it soon sinks 

 to the bottom. After ascending the Mississippi about two 

 miles, we came to an anchor, and went on more on the east- 

 ern side. The forests here are deep and gloomy, swarming 

 with innumerable mosquitoes, and the ground overgrown 

 with enormous nettles. There is no point near the conflu- 

 ence of the Ohio and Mississippi, from which a distant pros- 

 pect can be had. Standing in view of the junction of these 

 magnificent rivers, meeting almost from opposite extremities 

 of the continent, and each impressed with the peculiar cha- 

 racter of the regions from which it descends, we seem to 

 imagine ourselves capable of comprehending at one view all 

 that vast region, between the summits of the Alleghanies and 

 of the Rocky Mountains, and feel a degree of impatience at 

 finding all ourprospectslimited, by an inconsiderable extent of 

 low muddy bottom lands, and the unrelieved, unvaried, gloom 

 of the forest. 



Finding it necessary to review the packing of the piston in 

 the steam engine, which operation would require some time, 



* Schultz's Travels, p. 92. v. 2. 



