Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/684

MISSISSIPPI RIVER. rises in the highlands of Minnesota, in Elk Lake, just south of Lake Itasca, in latitude 47° 10′ N., longitude 95° 10′ W. Its sources are 1462 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, into which it empties. Its general course is southerly, with numerous windings, giving it a length of about 2500 miles to its mouth in latitude 29° N., longitude 80° 15′ W. Following up the Missouri branch, and the Jefferson to its head in southwestern Montana, the total length of the Mississippi-Missouri, from its source to the Gulf of Mexico, is fully 4200 miles. The Mississippi and its branches drain the entire western slope of the Appalachian, and nearly the whole eastern slope of the Rocky Mountain system within the United States, its drainage basin covers an area of about 1,257,000 square miles, or over two-fifths of the total area of the United States, exclusive of Alaska. It is navigable to the Falls of Saint Anthony at Minneapolis, 2161 miles, and by smaller boats above the falls. Its tributaries large enough to be mapped on a chart of comparatively small scale number 240, among which are 45 at present navigable. The most important of its tributaries navigable by large or small boats are the Missouri, navigable to the Great Falls in Montana, 2300 miles; the Arkansas, navigable to Wichita, Kan.; the Red River, navigable to Gainesville, Tex.; the Ohio, navigable to Pittsburg, Pa., 963 miles. The total navigable length of the Mississippi and its tributaries is over 14,000 miles following the river windings, and 9000 miles measured in straight lines. The river forms a portion of the boundaries of ten States, having the southern part of Minnesota, and the States of Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and most of Louisiana on the west bank; and Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi on the east. Twenty-one States and Territories are intersected by the navigable waters of this great system. The chief cities situated on its banks are New Orleans, Natchez, Vicksburg, Memphis, Cairo, Saint Louis, Quincy, Burlington, Rock Island, Davenport, Dubuque, Saint Paul, and Minneapolis.

The sources of the river are in Lakes Elk, Itasca, Bemidji, Cass, Winnibigashish, Fishing, Leech, and Mud, lying among hills of drift and boulders, in the midst of pine forests and marshes. From Lake Itasca to Bemidji the stream is about 12 feet wide and 2 feet deep. It issues from the latter 120 feet wide, flowing to Cass Lake, which it leaves with a width of 172 feet, contracting and deepening below as it flows through marshes till it comes to a junction with Leech River, where it has rapids of 20 feet, called the Falls of Pokegama, 270 miles from the source. To this point small steamers navigate. The total descent to this point is 324 feet. Thence to the mouth of Crow Wing River, 247 miles, the river falls about one foot per mile. It is narrow through this distance and winds through oak and maple forests, marshes, and sandy hills, where the formation of rock is overlaid with the gravel and boulders of the drift period. Below, the river passes through a prairie country down to Elk River, and is stained slightly with the brownish color given by piney and marshy vegetation; 133 miles below the Crow Wing are the Sauk Rapids, one mile long, where Potsdam sandstone first outcrops on its banks and extends from that point down to Dubuque and Rock

Island. The Falls of Saint Anthony at Minneapolis are 18 feet high, with a breadth of 1200. Up to this point the river is navigable for commercial purposes, though practically Saint Paul is the head of navigation. The river widens below Saint Paul into what is called Lake Pepin, studded with islands. From the Falls of Saint Anthony to the junction with the Missouri, near Saint Louis, the river flows through a valley of great beauty and uniform fertility. Cliffs and rocky bluffs, from 200 to 300 feet high, give a picturesque character to that part of the valley below Rock Island, where it strikes the Carboniferous strata, the geological formation of the valley, to about 100 miles below the Missouri. At Rock Island, 381 miles below Minneapolis, there is a small fall, but the river is navigable between the right bank and the island 3 miles long with the aid of a canal constructed by the Government. Similar improvements have been made at the rapids near the mouth of the Des Moines River, so that the navigation of the Upper Mississippi is uninterrupted below the Falls of Saint Anthony. The surging, muddy, eddying waters of the Missouri, for a long distance, flow side by side with the clearer waters of the Mississippi, joining but not blending, till thrown together by many a crook and turn and eddy between the bluffs of the great valley. Before the Ohio River joins them, the union is complete; but the waters remain turbid to their junction with the sea, and, where joined by the currents of the Arkansas and Red rivers, take a more reddish color.

From the Falls of Saint Anthony downward level flood plains or bottom lands begin to appear adjacent to the river on one or both sides, becoming gradually lower as we proceed down the stream. This vast flood plain lies from 300 to 500 feet below the surface of the bordering uplands. Above Cape Girardeau, Mo., 30 miles above the mouth of the Ohio, these flood plains are still clearly above the level of the river, though they are sometimes subject to inundations. These bottom lands, both high and low, are of the highest order of fertility, those farthest north being used for cereals. Some of the largest have been reclaimed from liability to overflow by dikes across the water-channels by which they were inundated. Say Island, in Pike County, Ill., so reclaimed, is 40 miles in length. The American Bottom extends from the mouth of the Missouri 90 miles down the river on the east side with an average breadth of 6 miles. Below Cape Girardeau, on the west side, the whole country down to the Gulf is bottom land for an average width of 50 miles. But throughout this stretch, from Cairo, at the mouth of the Ohio, to the Gulf, the river flows in a channel on the summit of a low ridge, the land sloping gradually away from the banks on either side, so that the whole or the greater part of the bottom lands lie below the level of the river surface. Every watercourse in this bottom land, whether stream or bayou, flows in a similar channel, on a ridge created by its own deposits. The slopes of these ridges are the cultivable lands of this region. The intervening areas are mainly marshy, and in Louisiana are entirely marsh, rising but a few feet above the Gulf level. From Cairo, Ill., as far south as Memphis, Tenn., the river impinges on the east bank, leaving its bottom land on the west side. Thence southward as far as Natchez, Miss.,