LAKES & RIVERS.—BOOK I. 
3Y 
In lower Louisiana, there are a great number of lakes from 
the refluent waters of the Mississippi, and from the upland 
streams which lose themselves in the level. These will be enu¬ 
merated and more particularly described, in the account of the 
state of Louisiana, as also the lakes Pontchartrain, and Maure- 
pas, on the east side of the Mississippi; which although usual¬ 
ly known under the name of lakes, might with more propriety 
be considered as bays, as they are immediately connected with 
the sea. 
In this place I shall give some detailed account of the great 
rivers ; reserving the less considerable for the place where I 
shall speak of the sections of country which they traverse. 
THE MISSISSIPPI. 
To enter into all those particulars respecting this noble ri¬ 
ver, which writers have deemed worthy of notice, would far ex- 
teed the bounds to which I am confined. Besides, it is so well 
known from the writings of many intelligent persons, that by en¬ 
tering into such detail, my task would be little more than that of 
compilation. The Mississippi (or Mitchasippi, the father of 
streams) justly ranks amongst the most magnificent rivers in 
the world; whether We consider its extent, the astonishing num¬ 
ber and magnitude of its tributary rivers, or the amazing scope 
of fertile lands which it traverses ; watering at least a fourth of 
the habitable part of North America. The comparison to the 
Nile not unfrequeiitly made, is far from giving just conceptions 
of its riiagnitude and importance.* It is only with the equally 
noble and vast rivers of the New World, it can be properly as* 
feiinilated. It differs from these in one particular; instead of a 
channel proportioned to its extent and magnitude, it gives its tri¬ 
bute to the ocean by innumerable out-lets and natural canals. 
The Delta of this river is said to extend several degrees of lon¬ 
gitude, the whole formed with earth brought down by the stream. 
Perhaps at one period of the world, this river gave its waters to 
* A striking difference is, that the inundation of the one is regarded 
as a blessing, and of the other as a misfortune; the thin sandy soil of 
Egypt requires the fertilizing slime deposited by the Nile, while the 
alluvions of. the Mississippi are of exhaustless fertility. 
