DESCRIPTION 



OF THE 



MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



This noble river was made the western boundary 

 of the United States, by the definitive treaty with 

 Great Britain, in the year 1783. Considering its 

 great length, the prodigious column of water 

 rolling in its deep channel, and the quantity dis- 

 charged by numerous outlets, it must be rated 

 among the largest rivers on the American con- 

 tinent. It has been called the American Nile, 

 from some resemblance it seems to bear to that 

 celebrated river in Egypt. The fertility of Egypt 

 is well known to be owing to the periodical over- 

 flowing of the Nile. From a similar course, 

 vast tracts of land have been enriched by the out- 

 lets and overflowing of the Mississippi. The 

 Nile begins to rise about the middle of June, and 

 to subside in September. The floods in the 

 Mississippi begin about the first of April, and 

 the water falls within its banks by the first of Au- 

 gust. The overflowing is much greater on the 



