principal river of North America
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'''MISSISSIPPI RIVER''' (Indian, ''Miche Sepe'', as
spelled by some old writers, and translated the
“Great River” and “the Great Father of
Waters”), the principal river of North America,
and, in connection with its largest tributary
the Missouri, the longest river in the world,
except perhaps the Nile. It drains the greater
part of the territory of the United States lying
between the Allegheny and Rocky mountains,
a region nearly half as large as Europe. The
true Mississippi river begins at the confluence
of the Missouri and the Upper Mississippi. It
has eight principal tributaries, which, in the
order of the extent of the regions drained by
them, are the Missouri, Ohio, Upper Mississippi,
Arkansas, Red, White, Yazoo, and St.
Francis. The source of the Mississippi, according
to Schoolcraft, who visited it in 1832, is a
lake called by him Itasca, by the Chippewa
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Indians Omoshkos Sagaigon, and by the French
traders Lac la Biche. It is a beautiful sheet of
water, clear and deep, about 7 m. long and 1
m. to 3 m. wide, in lat. 47° 14' N, lon. 95° 2'
W., about 1,575 ft. above the sea. Five creeks
fall into Lake Itasca, the principal one of which
has its origin about 6 m. distant, in a pond
formed by water oozing from the bases of the
hills known as Hauteurs de Terre, which are
about 100 ft. high. The Mississippi at the outlet
of the lake is 10 or 12 ft. wide and 18 in.
deep, and flows N. E. over petty falls and
rapids through a series of small lakes and
marshes till it reaches Lac Travers, its most
northern point. This is a beautiful sheet of
water from 10 to 12 m. long and from 4 to 5
m. wide, surrounded by wooded hills sloping
to a beach of pure white sand. From Lac
Travers the river flows S. E. and S., and in the
first 25 m. is broken into a series of small
rapids, from the foot of which it flows with
an even current 40 or 50 yards wide and from
2 to 6 ft. deep to Cass lake, which has an area
of about 120 sq. m.; thence S. through a series
of savannas, separated by several lakes, to the
falls of Peckagama, where it is compressed into
a channel 80 ft. wide. Here the river rushes
down a rugged bed of sandstone 20 ft. in 300
yards. Below these falls the river is very
crooked, and averages about 40 yards in width.
It is broken by six rapids between Swan
and Sandy Lake rivers. Savanna river enters
the Sandy lake, and is the main canoe route
between the Mississippi and Lake Superior.
From the outlet of Sandy lake to Pine river,
100 m., the river presents several rapids and
islands, and receives a number of small
tributaries. Crow Wing river, the largest tributary
above the falls of St. Anthony, is nearly equal
to the Mississippi itself. The Elk river, the
Little falls, Big falls. Prairie rapids, and St.
Francis river follow in the order named; and
finally the falls of St. Anthony are reached,
where the river pitches over a perpendicular
face of sandstone 18 ft. high. An island at the
brink of the falls divides the current into two
channels, the largest of which flows by the
west side, and affords a great water power.
Including the rapids above and below the falls,
the entire descent of the river is about 65 ft.
within three quarters of a mile. These falls are
about 2,200 m. from the gulf of Mexico, and
constitute the natural head of steamboat
navigation; but small vessels ply regularly above the
falls for several hundred miles, according to the
stage of water. The next natural obstruction
to navigation below the falls of St. Anthony
are the Rock Island rapids, extending from
Leclaire to the cities of Rock Island and Davenport,
a distance of 14 m. The descent is 24 ft.
at extreme low water. The bed of the river
throughout the rapids is stratified limestone,
more or less folded, and forming chains or
barriers which extend entirely across the channel
at six or seven points. In 1866 congress
directed the removal of these chains, and also
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the improvement of the lower or Des Moines
rapid, 130 m. below the upper rapid, and
between Montrose and Keokuk. The length of
the latter is 12 m., and the descent 23 ft. at low
water. Before the improvements were undertaken,
there was about 11 m. of deep water
and good navigation on the upper rapids, and
only 3 m. on the lower rapids. The duty of
devising plans for the improvement of the
rapids was assigned to Gen. J. H. Wilson, U. S. A.,
who recommended that the obstruction at the
upper rapids should be removed mainly by the
use of coffer dams (see {{AmCyc article link|Dam}}, vol. v., p. 650), and
that the lower rapids should be improved by
similar means, supplemented by a lateral canal
7 m. long, 300 ft. wide, and having three locks
each 80 ft. wide and 350 ft. long. A board of
engineers approved these plans, and congress
ordered them to be carried into effect. The
improvements, under the supervision of Gen.
Wilson and his successor Col. Macomb, have
been pushed forward as fast as the appropriations
would permit, and are now (November,
1874) almost completed at the upper rapids,
while four fifths of the work has been done at
the lower rapids. The improvements will cost
about $5,000,000, and when completed will
enable the largest boats to pass the rapids,
whenever they can reach them either from
above or below. But the navigation of the
entire Upper Mississippi is rendered very difficult
during the dry season by the frequent
recurrence of sand bars; and although the
government has done something by the use of
dredge boats and wing dams to deepen the
water on the worst of these, no systematic
plan of improvement has yet been devised or
can be carried out till a much denser and richer
population shall inhabit the regions to be benefited.
But it is safe to say that between the
falls of St. Anthony and the mouth of the
Ohio there is water enough at the driest
season, if properly regulated and controlled, to
give a navigable depth of 6 ft. and ample width
for all uses to which it can be put.{{—}}The
Mississippi river, from the mouth of the Missouri
to the gulf, is 1,286 m. long; from the source
of the Upper Mississippi, 2,616 m. The
distance from the Madison fork source of the
Missouri to the gulf is 4,194 m., and from the
head of the Ohio river at Cloudersport, Pa.,
to the gulf, 2,551 m. The numerous branches
of the navigable waters connected with the
Mississippi penetrate all the states and territories
between the Rocky and Alleghany
mountains. The capacity of these branches
for navigation has been as yet only partially
developed, but a careful compilation shows
that they constitute a natural system of
water communication having an aggregate
extent of about 15,000 m.{{—}}The following table,
taken from Humphreys and Abbot's “Report
upon the Hydraulics of the Mississippi River”
(4to, Philadelphia, 1861), shows the area of the
basins, downfall of rain, and annual drainage
of the Mississippi and its principal tributaries:
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{|align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" rules="cols"
|colspan="5" style="border-bottom-style: solid"|
|-
|align="center"|{{smaller|BASIN.}}
|align="center"|{{smaller|Area,<br> square miles. }}
|align="center"|{{smaller|Annual downfall,<br>in cubic feet.}}
|align="center"|{{smaller|Annual drainage,<br>in cubic feet.}}
|align="center"|{{smaller| Ratio. }}
|-
|<hr>
|<hr>
|<hr>
|<hr>
|<hr>
|-
|align="left"|Ohio river
|align="right"|214,000
|align="right"|20,700,000,000,000
|align="right"|5,000,000,000,000
|align="center"|0.24
|-
|align="left"|Missouri river
|align="right"|518,000
|align="right"|25,200,000,000,000
|align="right"|3,780,000,000,000
|align="center"|0.15
|-
|align="left"|Upper Mississippi
|align="right"|169,000
|align="right"|13,800,000,000,000
|align="right"|3,300,000,000,000
|align="center"|0.24
|-
|align="left"|Small tributaries
|align="right"|32,400
|align="right"|3,600,000,000,000
|align="right"|3,240,000,000,000
|align="center"|0.90
|-
|align="left"|Arkansas and White rivers
|align="right"|189,000
|align="right"|13,000,000,000,000
|align="right"|2,000,000,000 000
|align="center"|0.15
|-
|align="left"|Red river
|align="right"|97,000
|align="right"|8,800,000,000,000
|align="right"|1,800,000,000,000
|align="center"|0.20
|-
|align="left"|Yazoo river
|align="right"|13,850
|align="right"|1,500,000,000,000
|align="right"|1,350,000,000,000
|align="center"|0.90
|-
|align="left"|St Francis river
|align="right"|10,500
|align="right"|1,100,000,000,000
|align="right"|9,990,000,000,000
|align="center"|0.90
|-
|align="left"|Entire Mississippi exclusive of Red river
|align="right"| 1,147,000
|align="right"| 78,900,000,000,000
|align="right"| 18,900,000,000,000
|align="center"| 0.25
|-
|colspan="5" style="border-top-style: solid"|
|}
Below the mouth of Red river, the Mississippi
is divided into numerous arms or passes, each
of which pursues an independent course to the
gulf. The highest of these is the Atchafalaya
on the W. side of the river. Below its point
of separation from the Mississippi the region
of swampy lands, of bayous and creeks, is
known as the delta. Above this the alluvial
plain of the river extends to the Chains, 30 m.
above the mouth of the Ohio, and to Cape
Girardeau in Missouri, where precipitous rocky
banks are first met with. These are the lower
secondary limestone strata lying in nearly
horizontal beds. The total length of the plain
from the mouth of the Ohio to the gulf is
estimated at 500 m. Its breadth at the upper
extremity varies from 30 to 50 m.; at
Memphis it is about 30 m., and at the mouth of
White river 80 m. The extreme width of the
delta is rated at 150 m., its average width is
probably 90 m., and its area 12,300 sq. m.
The elevation of the bottom lands at Cairo
above the sea level is about 310 ft., while the
slope of the high-water surface from that place
to the gulf is from 322 to 0. These bottom
lands are subject to inundation, and consequent
annual enrichment. Under the system
of slave labor large plantations were opened
in the dense forests which cover them, but
vast tracts of unsurpassed fertility are yet
covered with canebrakes and cypress. The alluvial
plain, extending from above Cairo to the
gulf, is terminated on the east and the west by
a line of bluffs of irregular height and direction,
composed of strata of the eocene and
later tertiary formations. Down this plain
the river flows in a serpentine course,
frequently washing the base of the hills on the
E. side, as at Columbus, Randolph, Memphis,
Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, Natchez, and Baton
Rouge, and once passing to the opposite side
at Helena. The actual length of the river
from the mouth of the Ohio to the gulf is
1,097 m., increasing the distance in a straight
line by about 600 m., and by its flexures also
reducing the rate of its descent to less than
half the inclination of the plain down which
it flows. The range between high and low
water at Cairo, near the head of the plain, is
51 ft., and at New Orleans it is 14.4 ft. The
river flows in a trough about 4,470 ft. wide
at the head, and 3,000 ft. at the foot. The
immense curves of the stream in its course
through the alluvial plain sweep around in
half circles, and the river sometimes, after
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traversing 25 or 30 m., is brought within a
mile or less of the place it had before passed.
In heavy floods the water occasionally bursts
through the tongue of land, and form what is
called a “cut-off,” which may become a new
and permanent channel. The height of the
banks and the great depth of the river bed
check the frequent formation of these cut-offs,
and attempts to produce them artificially have
often failed, especially when the soil is a tough
blue clay, which is not readily worn away by
flowing water. This was the case at Bayou
Sara, where in 1845 an excavation intended to
turn the river was made, by which a circuit
of 25 m. would have been reduced to a cut
of one mile; and also at Vicksburg in 1862-'3,
where the Union army endeavored to make a
cut-off out of range of the confederate guns.
Semicircular lakes, which are deserted river
bends, are scattered over the alluvial tract.
These are inhabited by alligators, wild fowl,
and gar fish, which the steamboats have nearly
driven away from the main river. At high
water the river overflows into these lakes.
The low country around is then entirely
submerged, and extensive seas spread out on
either side, the river itself being marked by
the clear broad band of water in the midst of
the forests that appear above it. The great
freshets usually occur in the spring, and are
often attended with very serious consequences.
Crevasses are formed in the banks and increase
with the flow, which becomes so violent that
boats are occasionally carried with their crews
into the intricacies of the bayous which lead
the waters to the streams at the foot of the
bluffs.{{—}}The lower portion of the alluvial plain,
called the delta, rises from a few inches to 10
ft. only above the level of the sea, and is
formed of sands and clays in horizontal layers.
The delta protrudes into the gulf of Mexico
far beyond the general coast line, and is
slowly but imperceptibly advancing into the gulf
by the shoaling caused by the deposition of
the sediment brought down the river. This is
mostly dispersed by the waves and currents,
and distributed over the bottom of the gulf.
Although the banks of the passes are
sometimes observed to have advanced in the course
of a few years sensibly into the gulf, these are
but narrow strips of land, which may be swept
away by the rush of the gulf waters driven up
by storms, leaving the long coast of the delta
but slightly changed. The old French maps of
the early part of the last century still very {{hws|cor|correctly}}
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{{hwe|rectly|correctly}} represent many of the mud banks and
channels or bayous around the Balize, which
is the station of the pilots at the mouth of the
river. Here only, for a distance of 100 m. from
the gulf, is the river seriously obstructed by
bars. Over these the depth of water is
sometimes only 15 ft.; but this is very changeable,
as the channels are shifted by the floods in the
river and the gulf storms. These bars are
composed of blue clay mud, through which vessels
drawing 2 or 3 ft. more water than the actual
depth can be taken by steam tugs. Great
efforts have been made by the government to
remove these obstructions by dredging, and the
depth of water has been increased thereby to
21 ft.; but owing to the difficulty of maintaining
such a great depth with dredges, congress
has appointed a board of engineers to investigate
the subject and report a plan.{{—}}The sediment
of the lower Mississippi is chiefly a fine
clayey matter, so universally suspended in the
water as to give it a thick muddy appearance.
The Upper Mississippi is clear, but the Missouri
pours into it a vast amount of whitish muddy
matter, which renders the water so turbid that
at St. Louis one cannot see through a tumbler
filled with it. This, however, does not prevent
its being generally used for drinking, and for
culinary purposes. The Ohio adds to it a greenish
current, and the Arkansas and Red rivers
pour in the red ochreous sediment already
referred to; while the Mississippi itself excavates
its alluvial plain and sweeps down, intermingled
with the rest, vast quantities of vegetable soil
that falls in the banks of the river. The coarser
pebbles and sands accumulate in the bends and
eddies, forming bars, and the lighter materials
are deposited in the gulf of Mexico. According
to the report of Capt. (now Gen.)
Humphreys and Lieut. (now Gen.) Abbot, a
comparison of the results of many observations
during a long period leads to the belief that
the weight of the sediment of the Mississippi
is {{frac|1|1500}} that of the water, and its bulk {{frac|1|2900}};
and if the mean annual discharge of the river
be assumed to be 19,500,000,000,000 cubic feet,
it follows that 812,500,000,000 pounds of
sedimentary matter, constituting one square mile
of deposit 241 ft. in depth, are yearly
transported to the gulf. In addition to the amount
held in suspension, the Mississippi pushes along
large quantities of earthy matter. No exact
measurement of this can be made, but from
the yearly rate of progress of the bars into the
gulf, it appears to be about 750,000,000 cubic
feet, which would cover a square mile about 27
ft. deep. The total yearly contributions from
the river to the gulf amount then to a prism
268 ft. high, with a base of one square mile.{{—}}The
uniformity of width of the Mississippi is
very remarkable. At New Orleans it is about
3,000 ft. wide, and from this it varies little
for a distance of nearly 2,000 m., except that
in the bends it swells out to 1 or even 1½
m. The junction of its principal branches
produces no increase in the width. The depth is
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very variable, sometimes reaching 150 ft., but
the maximum is more commonly from 120 to
130 ft. The mean depth at high-water mark
is about the same at Carrollton and at Natchez,
300 m. further up. A section of the river at
Carrollton, made at high-water mark in 1858,
comprises 184,000 square feet, and at Natchez
221,000. The mean rate of descent varies at
low water from .005 of a foot per mile at the
head of the passes, to .578 of a foot at Cairo,
and in high-water from .115 of a foot to .497
of a foot per mile. The velocity varies at
Carrollton from 1.45 to 2.61 m. per hour,
according to the stage of the water and the
direction of the wind.{{—}}The Mississippi, like the
other great rivers of the west, is continually
gathering into its current numbers of trees, as
the banks upon which they grew are undermined.
They are frequently left in the main
channels, their roots fixed to the bottom, and
their tops pointing down stream. In this
condition they are known as snags and sawyers,
and present to boats ascending the river,
especially at night, a most dangerous obstruction.
But continual care is now given to the removal
of these obstructions. The accumulations of
the drift materials in the arms of the river
have sometimes been so great as to bridge
these over and extend for miles up the current.
The obstruction is then known by the name of
raft. From about the year 1778 such an
accumulation had been gathering in the Atchafalaya,
until in 1816 it had extended to full 10 m. in
length, over 600 ft. in width and about 8 ft.
in depth. Though rising and falling with the
water, it afforded a soil for the growth of
bushes and of trees, some of which reached the
height of 60 ft. In 1835 the state of Louisiana
took measures to have it removed, and this
was finally accomplished at a heavy cost in the
course of four years. The Red river raft is
still more famous for the large sums which
have been appropriated by congress to effect
its removal, the work upon which has been
carried on with great success of late years, and
is now almost completed. The appropriations
made from time to time by congress for the
Mississippi river comprise the following items:
{|align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
|align="left"|Mouth of Mississippi river, from 1836 to 1856
|align="right"|$690,000
|-
|align="left"|Mouth of Mississippi river, from 1856 to 1875
|align="right"|1,224,350
|-
|align="left"|Mississippi river, between Illinois and Ohio rivers
|align="right"|665,000
|-
|align="left"|Des Moines rapids
|align="right"|3,028,200
|-
|align="left"|Rock Island rapids
|align="right"|1,039,650
|-
|align="left"|Upper Mississippi river, including falls of St. Anthony
|align="right"|677,640
|-
|align="left"|Mississippi river, including rapids (1886 to 1856)
|align="right"|465,000
|-
|
|<hr>
|-
|align="left"|{{gap}}Total
|align="right"|$7,789,840
|}
{{—}}For a full statement of measurements, all
the phenomena, physical elements, and laws
relating to this great river, see the “Report
upon the Physics and Hydraulics of the
Mississippi River,” prepared by Capt. A. A.
Humphreys and Lieut. H. L. Abbot, U. S.
army (4to, Philadelphia, 1861), and also the
official reports of the chief of engineers to the
war department.{{—}}The first European explorer
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of the Mississippi valley was De Soto, who
with his party reached the river in June, 1541,
as is supposed not far below the site of
Helena in Arkansas. (See {{AmCyc article link|De Soto|De Soto, Fernando}}.) In 1673
Marquette and Joliet descended the river to
within three days' journey of its mouth. La
Salle in 1682 descended the river to the gulf
of Mexico, and took possession of the country
in the name of the king of France. About
the year 1699 Iberville built a fort upon the
banks of the river, and in 1703 the settlement
of St. Peter's was made upon the Yazoo
branch. New Orleans was laid out in 1718, and
levees were immediately commenced, which
were completed in front of the city ten years
afterward. At that time the levee system of
lower Louisiana was fully established.