Minnesota weekly times., 1856-11-29
The Father Of Waters.

The following eloquent description of the Mis-
sissippi, we find in the Valley Messenger, Birm-
ingham, Com, written by an esteemed friend of
ours at the East. 1t is the most comprehensive
picture we have ever seen.
''This is the most important river in North
America, and with the Missouri, its principal af-
fluent, is the longest in the world. 1t extends
3, 100 miles, and if we regard the Missouri its
continuation, it is 500 miles in length. 1t would
reach from New York across the Atlantic, and
extend through France, Germany, Austria and
Turkey in Europe, and penetrate the remote Cas-
plan Sea in Oriental Asia. The average width
from the Falls of st. Anthony in Minnesota, to
its delta on the Gulf of Mexico, is nearly half a
mile; its average depth ITO feet. 1t is always
navigable to the mouth of the Ohio, and the up
per part for or months in the year. Its course
ie from north to south, and the trapper descend
ing the river, may take with him the furs of the
animals that inhabit its sources, and exchange
them for the sugar and tropical fruits that are
gathered on its banks below. Again-the floods
produced by winter SHOWS and spring rains cannot
be simultaneously discharged. Spring, advancing
in direction to the current OF the stream,
releases in succession the waters of the lower val
lev, then Of the middle section, and finally of the
remote sources of its tributaries in the Rocky
Mountains and hills of the north. 1t takes over
a month for the foods to travel from the sources
to its delta.
The total value of the steamboats, al1oat on this
mighty river and its tributaries, is estimated at
Sc, 700 900, and their number rs high as 1900,
with an aggregate burthen of more than twice the
entire steamboat tonnage Of Great Britain, and
probably equal to that of all other parts of the
world. 1t drains an area of l 1,200,000 square
miles, which, from its almost unexamped fertili-
tv, has obtained the title ssThe Garden of the
World.'' In extent, fertility, variety of scenery,
e n.
other on the globe. 1t is the great aorta Of the
continent, and receives score of tributaries, the
least of which is larger than the vaunted streams
of mighty empires. 1t might furnish natural
boundaries for all Europe, and yet leave for
every country river greater than the Seine.
1t engulfs more every season than the revenues
of many petty kingdom, and at a speed un-
known to any other great river, it rolls a volume
in whose depths the cathedral of st. Paul might
be sunk out of sight. 1t flows from the country
of the savage to that Of civilization and refine
ment, and in its descent are the gradations of
thickening fields and growing cultivation which
define its course, until it reaches its elimination,
a crowded city.
1t discharges in one year, more water than has
issued from the Tiber in five centuries; it swal-
lows up nearly 6ftv rivers that have vet no name,
each of which is longer than the Thames the ad-
diton of the waters of the ssdark rolling Danube'
would not swell it half a fathom; and in a single
bend, the navies Of the world might safely ride
at anchor in the heart of this Republic, 500 miles
from sea. 1t washes the shores of twelve power
ful States, and between its arms. lies space for
twenty more. The rains which fall upon the
Allegbanies, and the SHOWS that shroud the slopes,
and cap the SUBMITS of the Rocky Mountains, are
borne upon its bosom to the regions of perpetual
summer, and poured into the sea, more than 1900
leagues from their sources. 1t has formed q
larger tract of land by the aluval deposits of its
inundations than is contained in Great Britain
and Ireland; and annually bears away more acres
than it would require to make a German Princi.
pality.