Southern Argus. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1834-1842, 1839-01-15

ter aud az The foot q 4. AnLno1y
Fails. lis breadth S but one third less.--
This forms striking charac terislic of the
western rivers owes, perhaps, is origin
partially to the turbid character Of their
waters as they approach their outlet they
augment in volume, and depth, and in1-
peiuosity Of current, but contract their
expanse. None, however, exhibit these
features 50 strikingly as the grand central
stream: and while for its body of weiet
!, Is the narrowest stream known, it is
CHARGED with the heavier solutions, and
has broader alluvions than any other.--
The depth Of the stream is constantly va
rying. At New Orleans, it exceeds one
hundred feet. Its width is from half OF
one, 10 two miles. The breadth Of its
valley, is from six miles to sixty. The
rapidity Of its current, from two miles to
four. Its mean descent, six inches in a
mile; and its annual floods vary from IL
feet to go, commencing in March and
ending in May. This much for st It's
tics.
Below its confluence with its turbid tri-
Butary, the Mississippi, as has been OBJ
served, is no longer the clear pure, limpid
stream, gushing forth from the wreathy
SHOWS of the Northwest, but it whiIls
along against its rugged banks, resistless
volume of heavy sweeping floods, and its
aspect of placid magnlfcence is beheid no
more. The turbid torrent heaves onward,
wavering from side to side like living
creature, as if to overleap its bounds
rolling along in deep cut race path
through a vast expanse of lowland and
meadow, from the eXhaustess mould OF
which are reared aloft those enormous
shafts, shrouded in the fresh emeral :, or
the tassaed parasites, for which its allu.
vial bottoms are so famous. And yet the
valley Of the endless river cannot be DEEM
ed heavily timbered, when contrastcd with
the forested hills of the Ohio. The syca-
more, the elm, the linden, the cottonwood,
the cypress, and other trees of declduous
foliage, may attain greater diameter, but
the huge trunks are more sparse and more
isolated in recurrence.
But one of the most striking phenom-
cna of the Mississippi, in common with
all the western rivers, and one which dis
tinguishes them from those which disem-
bogue their waters into the Atlantic, is the
uniformity of IFS lneanderings. The river,
in its onward course, makes semi circu-
lar sweep, almost with the precision Of q
compass, and then it is precipitated dag
onaiy across its channel, TO a curve OF
equal regularity, upon the opposite shore.
The deepest channel, and the most rapid
current, is said to exist in the bend !; and
thus the stream generally, infringes upon
the bend side, and throws up sand-bar
on the shore opposite. So constantly dc
these sinuosities recur, that there are saidt
to be but three reaches of any extent, be.
tween the confluence of the Ohio and the
Gulf: and so uniform, that the boatmen
and Indians have been accustomed to es.
innate their progress by the number Of
bends, rather than by the number Of miles
| One of the sweeps Of the Missouri is-said
to include a distance of forty miles in its
curve, and a circuit of half that distance
is not uncommon. Some times g cut
off," in the parlance of the watermen, is
produced at the bends, where the stream
4 the uurrow neck OF the peninsula, around
which it once circled. At a point called
the "grand cutoff" steamers now pass
through an isthmus of less than one mile,
where, formerly, was required circuit Of
twenty. The current in its more furious
stages, often tears up islands from the bed
Of the river, numerous sand-bars and
points, and sweeps off whole acres of al.
luvion with the superintendent forests
In the season of floods, the settlers in theil
g-cabins are often startled from thelI
sleep by the deep. sullen crash of {" land
Slip" as such removals are called.
The scenery of the Mississippi below
! its confluence with the Missouri, is, as ha.
been remarked, too sublime for beauty
and yet there is not little of the pictur
esque in the views which meet the CIV,
along the banks. Towns and settlements
of greater or less extent, appear at fire
quent intervals; and the lowly log.hut O
/ the pioneer is not to be passed without no
= tice, standing beneath the tall, branches
!, columns of the girdled forest.trces. witt
s its luxurianl maize fields sweeping ava,
: in the rear.