The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1841-02-16
THE MOUTH OF TIE MISSOURI.
BY AN AMERICAN.

NATURE has indeed spread out her works upon
a more extensive scale in our favored regions, than
in the older portions OF the human heritage Our
lakes and rivers plains, vallies, and forests, are
impressed with character of vastness, II may
coin abstract term, which is itself one of the at
rbutes oftrue sublimity, and which produces upon
the tray eer who visits them, emotions which no
after events in life efface. L never felt more
profoundly tho weakness of man and the power of
God than when seated in irai birch canoe, with
its ribs ofcedar and its covering Of bunk, descend-
ing the Mississippi in the night, and approaching
the junction of tins mighty river with the migh,ier
Missouri. 4f.
These little Indian boats are admirably calcula-
ted for the manners of our aborigines, aud of thp
Canadian voyagers, their co tenants OF the western
forests, and often their CO descendants from the
same stock, and for the various lines Of internal
communication which nature has 50 bountifully
provided for the trans Allegheny regions Driven
by the paddle and by the wind, with. great ease
and velocity, light, aud apparently rage they are
managed with skill and safely ride ovei the waves
which they seem hardly to touch; and when they
reach AK interruption in the igation, they are
taken from the water aud carried to the next point
ofembarca alton, across the intervening country. l
had come down the Mississippi ono of these
"
men of tried fidelity, of wonderful muscular
strength and with powers Of abstinence and rcpie-
lion alter ma iely tried by periods Of want aud album
dance, which at the effect and the accom-
paniinen mt of nomadc life. No Frenchman exceeds
them in animal spirits ,and no buchanan in love Of
tobacco and their intervals of exertioa and repose,
are called pipes and papses; and Curing the former
they paddle with the utmost force of their tawny
arms keeping time 10 their songs, which break up
ON the SILENCE Of the forest, while the period OF re-
taxation is passed in cheerful conversation.
One of these excitements, almost PERIODICAL
which make :heir appearance among our Indian
tribes, and which spread alarm upon The frontiers,
had suddenly manifested itselfupon the upper re-
cions of the Mississippi; and had descended the
river with rapidity till then unknown; travelling
day and night with short intervals of repose Tor
NV willing but weary crew. Under ordinary cir
Gums ar ces, | should have sought the first good
place of enc ampment which presented itself to-
wards the decline Of day. and landing, should have
TAX en- from the water and brought 10 shore my ca
noe and luggage; and pitching my tent, and light
inc a good fire. should have disposed myself for IL
com Portable supper and quiet night But was
obliged to forego these uxures OF interior western
| ,rave ling and ,hp night had already commenced
| when passed the month of the Illinois, ard was
advanced, when the gradual relaxation of the cur-
rent warned us that we were approaching the point
of junction of those great arteries OF the continent
where the Missouri precipiiates i,sefwith the force
of its tremendous stream, into the Nj Mississippi, and
sending its current almost tn the opposite bank
checks for many miles the power of its rival; RI
val which usurps its NJ, me, but whose changed
characteristics from here to the sea- suthcahty m
dictate its nferority. The peculiar lectures oi
these great rivers, seeking their origin IN regions
so distant, and mingling in common innss' 10
pour their joint floods into the ocean, pre- SCENTS one
Of the most interesting subjects Of consideration
which the study Of orr geology offers to the inqui
rer. ..
! The current of the Missouri is prodig'ous; ooii-
ing, whirlng, eddying, as though conh"ed w''nin
too narrow Il space, and striving to escape from IL:
it is petpeluaiy undermining It's banks, which are
thrown into the stream, nlmos, with The noiso Of
nm avalanche, and its water Is exceedingly iurbid,
mixed with the earth, Of which it takes possession
and exhibiting whitish, clayey appearance, SO
dense and i,npenetrabe to the light, that it is inn
nossible TO discern an object below the surface of
The river Tho Mississippi, ON the contrary, ~ a