Mississippi-Missouri

MISSISSIPPI-MISSOURI.

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PHIIiADEIiPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.

1891.

MISSISSIPPI-MISSOURI.

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PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LTPPINCOTT COMPANY.

1891.

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Copyright, 1891, by J. B. Lippincott Company.

MISSISSIPPI-MISSOURI.

Mississippi-Missouri. The Mississippi River (Al-
gonkin Missi Sipi, ' Great River'), the largest river of
North America, is, with its tributaries, wholly within
the boundaries of the United States. It drains most of
the territory between the Rocky and Alleghany
Mountains, embracing an area of 1,257,545 sq. m., or
more than two-fifths of the area of the United States.
This basin includes the minor basins: Lower Missis-
sippi, 65,646 sq. m. ; Red River 92,721; Arkansas
184,742; Missouri, 527,690; Upper Mississippi, 179,-
635 ; Ohio, 207,1 1 1. Besides the four tributaries here
named, there are forty-one others navigable, and 200
more of moderate size. The total length of the Missis-
sippi is 296omiles, of which 2 161 are navigable ; but the
Missouri affluent (see below) is longer than the Upper
Mississippi, and with the lower river gives a total of
4200 miles. The total navigable waters amount to
16,090 miles.

The source of the Mississippi is Lake Itasca in the
north-west central part of Minnesota, about 7 miles
long by I to 3 wide, which has, however, several
feeders, the principal being Elk or Glazier Lake. The

4 MISSISSIPPI-MISSOURI.

remotest springs of Itasca rise in 47° 34' N. lat, and
95° 20' W. long., and are 1680 feet above sea-level.
As it issues from this lake the Mississippi is about 12
feet wide and 18 inches deep. Through pine-forests
and swamps for hundreds of miles it winds from lake
to lake, with frequent rapids and picturesque falls, until,
1200 feet wide, at the city of Minneapolis it plunges
over the Falls of St. Anthony. This point is the head
of river-navigation, though in various reaches above
small steamboats ply. After receiving the St. Croix,
the Mississippi becomes the boundary between the
states of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and
Louisiana on the right, and Wisconsin, Illinois, Ken-
tucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi on the left. Its
frequent rapids within Minnesota are due to the
granite bed, but sandstone prevails farther down, to
Rock Island, Illinois, On the Wisconsin boundary
the river expands into Lake Pepin, and thereafter, fully
a mile wide, flows between bluffs 200 and 300 feet high,
and sometimes through dense forests. At Rock
Island there are rapids with 22 feet of fall, and 1 25 miles
farther down are the Des Moines rapids with 24 feet
of fall. Around these obstructions to navigation
the United States government has constructed ship-
canals. The entrance of the turbid Missouri produces
a marked change in the character of the river; for
several miles the diverse waters refuse to mingle, the
Missouri's muddy tribute taking the right bank and
the Upper Mississippi's clear stream the left. When
the union is complete, the whole river has henceforth
a light yellowish colour, modified somewhat by the
Ohio's greenish water and more by the reddish water

MISSISSIPPI-MISSO URL

5

of the Arkansas and Red. From the mouth of the
Ohio the trough of the Mississippi is about 4470 feet
wide, but as it approaches the Red it is narrowed to
3000 feet, and at New Orleans is 2500 feet. The usual
depth of the channel southward from the Ohio is from
75 to 100 feet, and its surface is sometimes higher than
the country beyond its banks. In fact, from the
Missouri to the Gulf the Mississippi rolls in serpentine
course through vast alluvial tracts or ' bottoms,' whose
width varies from 30 to 150 miles. Their total area,
including those along tributary streams, is variously
estimated from 29,790 to 41,193 sq. m. Though of
unsurpassed fertility, scarcely one-tenth of these lands
are cultivated owing to the dangers of the annual
overflow. The melting of the ice and snow in the
upper basin swells the lower current from March to
June. Levees or embankments, largely built by the
government, now extend for more than 1600 miles.
Between the Ohio and the Red rivers extraordinary
floods, rising from 47 to 5 i feet, occur about once in ten
years, making ' crevasses' in the levees, and doing
immense damage. In these great floods the river has
been known to spread over a tract of 1 50 miles. Below
the Red River the waters are discharged through
numerous ' bayous' into the Gulf of Mexico. The
main channel runs south-eastward, and finally divides
into five or six passes, the principal being the south,
the north-east, and the south-west; the last is in 28°
58-5' N. lat. and 89° 10' W. long.

The mean velocity of the Lower Mississippi is 2)^
miles per hour. The yearly discharge into the Gulf is
nearly 145 cubic miles ; the sedimentary matter carried

5 MISSISSIPPI-MISSOURI.

with this would form a prism i mile square and 263
feet high, while the amount pushed along the bottom
of the channel would make another i mile square and
27 feet high. These vast deposits and the constant
changes caused by floods tend to embarrass the entrance
to the great river. To keep an open channel, at least
20 feet deep, Captain Eads (q.v.) contracted with the
United States government to erect and maintain a
system of jetties at the South Pass. The construction
was begun in 1875, and has proved highly successful,
a depth exceeding 30 feet having been maintained.
The mouth of the Mississippi is essentialy tideless.

The principal cities on the great river are Minne-
apolis, St. Paul, La Crosse, Dubuque, Keokuk, Quincy,
Hannibal, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans, at
several of which the river is crossed by railway
bridges. The steel bridge at St. Louis is the most
southern, besides which another was connected at the
same city in 18^0.

See Humphrey's and Abbot's Physics and Hydraulics of the Missis-
sippi Kiver (Phih. l86i), and Commerce and N'avigation of the Mis-
sissippi (Washington, i8S8).

Missouri River (' Big Muddy'), the principal branch
of the Mississippi River, is formed by the confluence
of the Jefferson, Gallatin, and Madison rivers, at
Gallatin City, Montana, 4132 feet above the sea-level.
These rivers rise in the Rocky Mountains, close to the
sources of the Columbia and Colorado rivers, and to
the Continental Divide. The Madison has the remotest
source in a small lake of the same name in Yellow-
stone National Park in Wyoming, 44° 19' N. lat. and
110° 50' W. long., at an elevation of 7632 feet. This

MISSISSIFPI- MISSO UR /. 7

river flows north-west and north to the junction of the
Three Forks. The Missouri then flows northward,
skirting the main range of the Rocky Mountains, and,
after passing through a gorge called ' The Gate of the
Mountains,' turns to the north-east and reaches Fort
Benton, the head of navigation, 225 miles from Galla-
tin City. About 40 miles above Fort Benton are the
Great Falls, where the river descends 327 feet in 15
miles by a series of cataracts, the highest having a
perpendicular fall of 87 feet. From Fort Benton the
course is easterly, the river being flanked by bluffs
about a mile apart until it passes the rapids 400 miles
below, when the valley opens to a width of 10 miles.
The Milk River is its first large tributary, but at the
boundary of North Dakota the still larger Yellowstone
joins it. The Yellowstone also rises in the National
Park, and flows at first over cataracts and through
canons until it emerges in a more level country. It is
1 1 52 miles long, and has the general characteristics of
the Missouri. From its junction, which is the head
of navigation in low-water season, the Missouri flows
through North Dakota, east and then south-east to
Bismarck ( 1610 feet above sea-level), where it is crossed
by the splendid bridge of the Northern Pacific Rail-
road. Through South Dakota the south-easterly
course continues to Sioux City, whence flowing south
the river becomes the boundary between Nebraska
and Kansas on the right and Iowa and Missouri on the
left. On receiving the tributary Kansas the stream
turns to the east, and flowing across the state of
Missouri pours its muddy waters into the channel of
the Mississippi, 20 miles above St. Louis. The

8 MISSISSIPPI-MISSOURI.

Missouri is 3047 miles long, of which 2682 are called
navigable, but owing to its tortuous, treacherous, and
obstructed channel navigation is attended with great
risks. The growing cities on its banks forsake the use
of the river for commercial purposes and depend on
the railways. In 1866 there were seventy-one steam-
ers in active service in that part within the state of
Missouri, but twenty years later the number had
diminished to seven steamers and three tow-boats.
The chief towns on the banks are Bismarck, Yankton,
Sioux City, Omaha, Council Bluffs, Nebraska City, St
Joseph, Atchison, Leavenworth, and Kansas City.

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