Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/78

70 length and six miles in breadth, called lake Pepin. The Mississippi passes through this lake, and although the French have denominated it a lake, it has rather the appearance of an extended width of the river. The water in some parts of it is deep, and abounds with several kinds of excellent fish. Large numbers of fowl, such as storks, swan, geese, ducks, and brant, resort to this lake. The groves and plains around it are replenished with turkies and partridges.

Below the lake, the river glides with a gentle current, having alternately high lands on one side, and extended meadows on the other. Some of the precipices fronting the river, are high and steep, ascending like pyramids, and exhibiting the appearance of ancient towers. Descending down the river, the eye is delighted, in some places, with the view of large, rich prairies, extending far back towards distant mountains, with beautiful groves or copses of trees, scattered over them, and watered with a number of small lakes.

Between the Saint Peters and Missouri rivers, many streams of considerable magnitude enter the Mississippi from the westward. The largest of them is the river Moin, about one hundred miles above the mouth of the Illinois. On this river the Sioux, and some other bands of Indians, frequently descend with their furs and skins for market. The current of the Mississippi continues gentle, and its water clear, until it joins the Missouri, where it becomes much more rapid, and