Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/75

 A

DESCRIPTION

OF THE

MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

noble river was made the western boundary of the United States, by the definitive treaty with Great Britain, in the year 1783. Considering its great length, the prodigious column of water rolling in its deep channel, and the quantity dis charged by numerous outlets, it must be rated among the largest rivers on the American continent. It has been called the American Nile, from some resemblance it seems to bear to that celebrated river in Egypt. The fertility of Egypt is well known to be owing to the periodical overflowing of the Nile. From a similar course, vast tracts of land have been enriched by the outlets and overflowing of the Mississippi. The Nile begins to rise about the middle of June, and to subside in September. The floods in the Mississippi begin about the first of April, and the water falls within its banks by the first of August. The overflowing is much greater on the