VIEWS OP LOUISIANA, 
CHAPTER IV. 
lakes and rivers. 
In so great an extent of country, it is not surprising there 
should be many navigable rivers. In Louisiana there are not 
less than three hundred streams adapted to the purposes of na¬ 
vigation, and yet this section of the great valley of the Mississip¬ 
pi, is far from being as well watered as that on the eastern side. 
Springs are less abundant, and the rivers depend chiefly for their 
supply on rains, and on the melting of the snows. It is a remark 
which applies to nearly all the larger rivers on the western side 
of the Mississippi, which take their rise in the great mountains, 
>vhere springs are numerous, and the streams clear and limpid, 
that while they flow through the mountainous country, they pos¬ 
sess deep and clear channels, and are of easy navigation, but on 
entering the lower country, spread out, become broad and shal¬ 
low, even ceasing to be navigable for a long distance. The Mis¬ 
souri and Mississippi, are perhaps the only exceptions. But 
those which rise short of the primitive mountains are navigable 
with scarcely any interruption to their sources, which are often 
in lakes. 
In upper Louisiana there are but few lakes except those near 
the heads of the Mississippi. The lake of the Woods, the lesser 
Winipec, Leech lake, Bed Cedar lake (supposed to be the source 
of the Mississippi) lake De Sable, See. are the most considerable 
of these. There are several lakes between the Missouri, and 
the N. W* chain, but the country is yet but little known. It is 
supposed that lake Winipec, perhaps the largest of all those in¬ 
land seas, comes within the territory of the United States.—. 
Even if in our limits of Louisiana we should be bounded by a 
line due west, from that one which terminates the line of the 
United States, it is probable that the source of the Mississippi 
is further north than the southern side of lake Winipec. This 
lake receives a number of very considerable rivers, and is dis¬ 
charged into Hudson’s Bay by Nelson’s river; it is connect¬ 
ed with other lakes to the north-west, and has from the rivers 
emptying into it ? an inconsiderable portage to the waters of lake 
Superior. 
