RIVERS k LAKES.—BOOK I. 
$9 
foayOUx, (out-lets frorn^ the river) are generally higher than 
those of the river from the same reason; they were undoubted¬ 
ly at one period the channels of the Mississippi. 
It is exceedingly difficult to give an idea of the country bor* 
dering on the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio. Some 
have represented the river as running through a swamp, others, 
that during the season of Hoods it may be considered as a river 
thirty miles wide; the whole country in this extent being under 
water. It cannot properly be called a swamfi according to the 
understanding of the word, that is, an almost irreclaimable mo¬ 
rass, or marsh; there are certainly large tracts during the floods 
completely inundated, particularly below Red river, but are again 
dry when they subside. If the reader were to conceive an idea 
that the valley or alluvion of the Mississippi, is at those times 
covered by a continued sheet of water, he would be deceived: 
but when the flood is at its height, the whole valley or alluvion 
country, is replenished with water, every where in motion, 
through the innumerable canals and lakes scattered through it, 
making its way towards the sea, leaving, however, large tracts 
perfectly dry. Above Red river the ground is rising every year 
by the accumulation of vegetable substance, and by the deposi¬ 
tion of earthy matter where the ground overflows—-the period is 
not distant when the greater part will be entirely above the 
reach of inundation. Above this river several settlements had 
been formed on the rivers and bayoux between the Mississippi 
and upland, and for five or six years were not affected by the ris¬ 
ing of the waters; it was not until the extraordinary flood of 
1811, that most of them were abandoned, yet such a quantity of 
sediment was deposited that year, that it will require a flood of 
considerably greater height to affect them. It may be worthy of 
remark, that the alluvial banks are generally highest on the 
western side; there are many places where the river does not 
break over them in the highest floods, by twelve or eighteen 
inches, though the ground is overflowed in the rear, leaving on- 
most trifling rivulet will be higher on the bank than at some distance 
from it; the grosser and more weighty matter brought down by the 
Stream being deposited first, and the lighter and filler at a greater dis¬ 
tance, and th£ last. 
