UNITED STATES. 



€own by the river serves to bind' and cement thena 

 together. They are gradually covered, and every 

 inundation, not only extends their length and breadth, 

 but adds another layer to their height. In less thaix 

 ten years time, canes and shrubs grow on them, and 

 form points and islands, which forcibly shift the bed 

 of the river. 



From St, Anthony's falls,* in latitude 45 deg/ if 

 glides with a pleasant clear stream, and becomes 

 comparatively narrow before its junction with the 

 Missouri, the muddy waters of which immediately 

 discolour the lower part of the river to the sea. 

 Its rapidity, breadth, and other peculiarities, then 

 begin to give it the majestic appearance of the Mis- 

 souri. 



From the Missouri river to nearly opposite thi 

 Ohio, the western bank of the Mississippi is (some 

 few places excepted) higher than the eastern. Froni 

 Mine au fer to the Ibberville, the eastern bank is 

 higher than the western, on which there is not a 

 single disccrnable rising or eminence, the distance 

 of 750 miles. From the Ibberville to the sea, theire 

 are no eminences on either side, though the eastern 

 bank appears rather the higher of the two, as far asr 

 the English turn. Thence the banks gradually dimi- 

 nish in height to the mouths of the river, where they 

 are not two or three feet higher than the common 

 surface of the water. 



The slime, which the annual floods of the river 

 Mississippi leaves on the surface of the adjacent 



• StiO leagues abofe theiiniem of die Mississippi and Missottii, 



