368 Story of the Mississippi-Missouri .— Claypole. 
not the North America of to-day and its great draining stream 
was not the mighty Mississippi as we know it. With its 
sources somewhere up in the northern states its mouth was 
near the site of the city of St. Louis. A deep gulf then 
extended northward from the present gulf of Mexico to that 
point, along the line of lowest ground, and it is quite possible 
that the Ohio reached this gulf by a mouth of its own without 
entering the Mississippi at all. Eastern North America con¬ 
sisted of the range of the Appalachians as a backbone with a 
large extent of lower land lying on both sides of it where are 
now the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vir¬ 
ginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee 
and Kentucky (the last then only in part); and farther north 
and west those of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Missouri, with parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas 
and the Indian Territory. It also included the whole of Can¬ 
ada to the foot of the Laurentide mountains. This was the 
area the greater portion of which passed its drainage into the 
sea by the young Mississippi and Ohio. 
Of these two rivers it is not certain that at that date the 
Mississippi was the longer. The question is not easy of de¬ 
cision. The difference certainly was not great and there lurks 
in the mind a suspicion that at all events during parts of this 
long age the advantage may have been on the side of the now 
smaller river. The Ohio, however, had a limited field for 
growth and has remained ever since its creation very much 
what it then was while the Mississippi has followed the ad¬ 
vice “ Go West.” It has gone west and grown up with the 
western country so that it has far outstripped its eastern 
rival and competitor. This will become clear as we proceed. 
As yet there was no Missouri. The second river of the mid¬ 
land region, the tributary without whose aid the “ Father of 
Waters” would sink to a very low position among the rivers 
of the earth, had not yet come into being. While the Mississ¬ 
ippi is one of the oldest rivers of America the Missouri 
is one of the youngest. The Mississippi came into ex¬ 
istence at the end of the palaeozoic age and was one 
of the results of the Appalachian revolution. Geological 
evidence warrants us in believing that it has been flowing 
from that day to this with very slight and temporary 
interruptions and changes. There is, however, one fact which 
