46 
VIEWS OF LOUISIANA. 
dred miles to the three forks, affording better navigation than 
any part of the Missouri, although the channel is generally nar¬ 
row and sometimes confined between lofty mountains. The three 
forks are all fine rivers, and receive a great number of smaller 
streams. In ascending the Missouri, sails are of more impor¬ 
tance than on any of the western rivers. The openness of the 
country gives scope to the winds, which in the spring and sum¬ 
mer usually blow from the S. E. and suit the general course of 
the river: I frequently ascended, notwithstanding the swiftness 
of the current, from thirty to forty miles per day for three or 
four days in succession. 
The Missouri is remarkable for its large and smaller bends. 
The greater we have already seen from the general course of the 
river; it would therefore not be surprising that it should after¬ 
wards turn south and take the course of the Mississippi. The 
small bends are where the river pursues a zig zag course for 
forty or fifty miles, constantly returning upon its steps. 
The Missouri receives all its principal rivers from the S. W. 
side. The extent of country to be drained on the N. E. side is to 
the other, as the east side of the Mississippi is to the western. 
This is owing to the vicinity of the Mississippi, and the N. W* 
Chain of lakes. The distance from the Mandan villages to the 
British establishment on the Red river of Winipec, is but a few 
days journey. 
The floods of this river usually begin early in March, and 
there is a continued succession of them until the last of July; 
the river subsiding and again rising as the different rivers bring 
down their annual tributes. It so happens, that seldom more 
than two great rivers are high at the same period. Many of these 
floods are never felt in the Mississippi. But the great rise of the 
Missouri itself, from the melting of the snows, takes place, about 
the tenth of June, and begins to subside about the latter end of 
July. In some of the northern branches, the ice does not break 
up until late in the season: about one thousand miles up the Mis¬ 
souri, I saw a large cake of ice floating in the river on the last 
of May. 
There is little variation in the width of this river from its 
raoAith to the cataracts. In some places it spreads considerably, 
