116 



UNITED STATES. 



(4.) The valleys between the ridges of the AUeghanies, the soil of which is various, bu 

 rather richer than that of the tract last mentioned. 



(5.) The extensive region west of the AUeghanies, bottomed on limestone, well watered, m- 

 exhaustibly productive, and containing perhaps as large a proportion of first rate soil as any 

 country in tlie world. The northern and western part of the Mississippi valley, stretching for 

 hundreds of miles along the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and several hundi-ed miles in width, 

 is a barren desert of sand. 



In a state of nature, the whole Atlantic slope was covered by a dense forest, which also spread 

 over a great part of the basin of the St. Lawrence, to llie 55th degree of N. Lat., and nearly 

 the whole of the Mississippi valley on the east of the river, and stretched beyond the Missis- 

 sippi for the distance of 50 or 100 miles. On this enormous forest, one of the largest on the 

 globe, the efibrts of man have made but partial inroads. This forest is bounded on its western 

 limits by another region of much greater area, but of a very different character. This may be 

 strictly called the grassy section of North America, which, from all that is correctly known, 

 stretches from the forest region indefinitely westward, and fi-om the Gulf of Mexico to the fur- 

 thest Arctic limits of the continent. The grassy or prairie region, in general, is less hilly, 

 mountainous, or rocky than the forest region ; but there are many exceptions to this remark : 

 plains of great extent exist in the latter, and mountains of considerable elevation and mass in the 

 former. The two regions are not divided by any determinate limit, but frequently run into each 

 other, so as to blend their respective features. 



4. Valley. The Valley of the Mississippi is drained by the Mississippi, Missouri, and 

 their numerous tributary streams, and may be considered as bounded N. by the great lakes 

 of British America ; E. by the Appalachian Mountains ; S. by the Gulf of Mexico ; and W. 

 by the Rocky Mountains. The Mississippi Valley is a wide extent of level country, in which 

 the various rivers enclosed between two chains of mountains, 3,000 miles apart, find a common 

 centre, and discharge their waters into the sea by a single channel. This valley extends from 

 the 29th to tiie 49th parallel of N. Lat., and exhibits every variation of temperature, from the 

 climate of Canada to that of Louisiana. 



5. Rivers. The principal rivers of the United States discharge themselves into the Atlantic 

 Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi, and the Pacific Ocean. The Jl'Iississippi rises in 

 about 47° N. Lat. in a number of head streams, and flows in a southerly course into the Gulf 

 of Mexico, in Lat. 29"^ G' N. Its length by its windings is above 3,000 miles. Its source is 

 in a lofty table-land, although the country here has the appearance of a vast marshy valle3^ 

 Seven hundred miles from its source it is precipitated over the Falls of St. Anthony, and forms 

 a beautiful cataract, 17 feet in descent, embellished by wild and romantic scenery. Below this, 

 it receives many large streams, and a little south of Lat. 39°, its waters are augmented by the 

 immense stream of the Missouri, from the west, which is both longer and carries a greater bulk 

 of water than the Mississippi, yet loses its name in the inferior stream. Farther onward, it re 

 ceives the Ohio from the east, and nearer the sea it is further augmented by the addition of two 

 great streams, the Arkansas and Red rivers. 



Below the Falls of St. Anthony, its course has no considerable obstruction. Here the stream 

 is half a mile in width. At its junction with the Missouri, it is a mile and a half wide. Above 

 this, it is a clear, placid stream, with rich and fertile alluvial banks, and broad, clean sand-bars. 

 Below the Missouri, it becomes narrower and deeper. It often tears away the islands and 

 points, and, at the season of high waters, great masses of the banks with all the trees upon them 

 are plunged into the stream. In many places, it deposits immense heaps of drift-wood upon 

 the sand-bars, which become as dangerous to the navigator as shoals and rocks at sea. These 

 obstructions are called snags, sawyers, planters, chutes, races, and chains. 



From its source to the Falls of St. Anthony, it flows through wild-rice lakes, swamps, lime- 

 stone bluffs, and craggy hills. The alluvial banks or bottoms are from 6 to 8 miles wide, and 

 are skirted by bluffs. Below the Ohio, the alluvion widens to 40 or 50 miles, and grows still 

 broader as it approaches the sea. From March to June, the river overflows its banks, and ex- 

 hibits in some places the appearance of an immense swamp, stretching as far as the eye can 

 reach ; in others, vast and magnificent forests rising from the waters of a lake. Where the 

 river meets the sea, it divides into several channels, which intersect a wide, dreary swamp, 

 destitute of trees, and overgrown with coarse reeds. The water is white and turbid, and colors 

 the ocean for a great distance out of sight of the land. 



Before the introduction of steamboats, the navigation of the river was performed by keel- 



