Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/89

81 lombardy poplar, but it is probably a different species. It differs, at least, in the very large quantity of volatile, capillary pappus attached to the seeds. When the seed vessels open, and the seeds come out, it almost fills the air, and, as it descends, covers the bushes and ground, like a fall of light snow. Its appearance very nearly resembles cotton wool, which has doubtless occasioned its trivial name.

The pecan, or Illinois hickery, grow plenty on the Mississippi. In the swamps and lowest flooded land, the cypress of a large size is the principal growth. Where the land is less inundated the swamp and live oak abound, which is highest estimated for ship building. The points at the bends of the river, and ends of islands, are chiefly covered with thickets of small willows. At the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi, its width is very little increased, and continues generally about a mile and a half, as far as the Natchez, where it begins to grow somewhat broader. The principal rivers which discharge their waters into the Mississippi, are the Saint Francis, White, Arkansas, and Red river, on the western side, and on the eastern, the Wolf and the Yazoo rivers.

Immediately on passing out of the Ohio into the Mississippi, the current is very sensibly accelerated, but is not so strong as between the Ohio and the Missouri. It is estimated to run at the rate of three and a half to four miles an