Groz^'th of the Mississippi Dclfa.—UpJuiin. 109 
reported to be suitable for navigation, wide and deep. The 
length of the western channel was noted as about three leagues. 
Accounts of this expedition were written by La Salle, Tonty, 
and Membre, and in recent times much biographic informa- 
tion concerning La Salle has been published by Sparks, Park- 
man, and Margry ; but no map of the jMississippi drafted at 
that time has come down to us. In following all the winding- 
course of the river, it would indeed have been a very difficult 
task to map it with general accuracy. It was erroneously 
thought to trend westward so that its mouths w^ould not coin- 
cide with the River Espiritu Santo of the Spanish coastal 
charts, but rather with some other of the several rivers enter- 
ing the gulf farther west. 
A detailed map of the river's mouths in 1682, then probably 
for the first time leisurely examined by white men, w^ould be 
of great interest to geologists, for a study of the subsequent 
extension of the delta. We must be content, however, with 
the few meager statements already given. Better information 
was gathered seventeen years later. Iberville and Bienville, 
brothers destined to become illustrious by founding the French 
colony of Louisiana, entered the eastern mouth of the delta 
with rowing boats, March 2nd, 1699; and in September of the 
same year a small English frigate entered one of the mouths 
and ascended the river to the English Turn, a great bend ten 
miles below the site of New Orleans. These are the earliest 
historic records of entries at the river's mouths. 
The chart of the delta drafted by these, early English ad- 
venturers was used by Daniel Coxe in a map published in 1722, 
in his "Description of the English Province of Carolana, by 
the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French La Louisiane." 
This is the earliest map showing the mouths of the Mississippi 
with considerable detail, the date of its information being 1609. 
It represents the eastern passes and the south pass as much 
shorter than the southwest pass, which last was described by 
La Salle as having a length of about three French leagues 
(8.28 statute miles). Coxe wrote: "The Three giteat Branches 
always Navigable by Shipping, are situated about 6 Allies 
distant from each other, and unite all at one Place with the 
main River, about 12 Miles from their Mouths." 
Another detailed map of this delta, far more elaborate, by 
Bellin, the distinguished French engineer, was published in 
