Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/90

82 hour; and when the water is high is somewhat increased. The river is exceedingly serpentine, and the islands numerous. Some of the bends in its course down to the line of demarkation, are sudden and large; but between that line and Pointe Coupee, there are several of prodigious magnitude.

In navigating the Mississippi, there is at all times a sufficient depth of water, but many sand bars make off into the river. Frequent strong eddies, and many large currents of water, sitting out of the river, when the water is high, with great rapidity, require the constant and careful attention of the navigator. The navigation is also impeded and endangered, by what are called planters. These are large bodies of trees, with their roots fast at the bottom of the river, and stumps but just above the surface of the water. Another impediment is called sawyers, which are bodies of trees standing in a sloping manner, and moving up and down by the force of the current. A third inconvenience is small wooden islands, composed of drift wood, which, by some means, has been arrested, and immoveably fixed to the bottom; not rising much above the water, are to be seen only at a short distance.

Soon after entering the Mississippi from the Ohio, the whole prospect is so much changed, as to exhibit the appearance of a different country; the climate becomes mild and soft; and the cold of winter seems to have produced very little effect