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Table of Contents

Its extent—Subdivisions—Population—Physical features—Animal, Vegetable and Mineral productions—History—Prospective increase of Population.

The Valley of the Mississippi, in its proper geographical extent, embraces all that portion of the United States, lying between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains, the waters of which are discharged into the gulf of Mexico, through the mouths of the Mississippi. I have embraced, however, under that general term, a portion of the country bordering on the northern lakes, including the north part of Ohio, the north-eastern portions of Indiana and Illinois, the whole of Michigan, with a considerable territorial district on the west side of lake Michigan, and around lake Superior.

Extent. This great Valley is one of the largest divisions of the globe, the waters of which pass one estuary.

To suppose the United States and its territory to be divided into three portions, the arrangement would be, the Atlantic slope—the Mississippi basin, or valley—and the Pacific slope.

A glance on any map of North America, will show that this Valley includes about two thirds of the territory of the United States. The Atlantic slope contains about 390,000; the Pacific slope, about 300,000; which, combined, are 690,000 square miles: while the Valley of the Mississippi contains at least 1,300,000 square miles, or 833,000,000 acres.

This Valley extends from the 29° to the 49° of N. latitude, or about 1400 miles from south to north; and from the 3° to the 35° of longitude west from Washington, or about 1470 miles from east to west. From the source of the Alleghany river to the sources of the Missouri, following the meanderings of the streams, is not less than 5000 miles.

Subdivisions. The states and territories included, are a small section of New York watered by the heads of the Alleghany river, western Pennsylvania, western Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Territory of Arkansas, Indian Territory, the vast unsettled regions lying to the west and north of this Territory, the Wisconsin Territory including an extensive country west of the Mississippi and north of the state of Missouri, with the vast regions that lie towards the heads of the Mississippi, and around lake Superior.[1]

Population. The following table, gives a comparative view of the population of the Valley of the Mississippi, and shows the proportional increase of the several States, parts of States, and Territories, from 1790 to the close of 1835, a period of 45 years. The column for 1835 is made up partly from the census taken in several states and territories, and partly by estimation. It is sufficiently accurate for general purposes.

States, parts of States and Territories.	1790	1800	1810	1820	1830	1835
Western Pennsylvania and a fraction of New York.)	75,000	130,000	240,000	290,000	380,000	490,000
Western Virginia	45,000	75,000	100,000	147,178	204,175	230,000
Ohio		[a]45,000	230,760	581,434	937,679	1,375,000
Indiana			24,520	147,178	341,582	600,000
Illinois			12,282	55,211	157,575	272,427
Missouri			[b]20,845	66,586	140,074	210,000
Michigan			4,762	8,896	31,000	83,000
Kentucky	73,677	220,959	406,511	564,317	688,844	748,844
Tennessee	35,691	105,602	261,727	422,813	684,822	735,000
Mississippi		[c]8,850	40,352	75,448	136,806	300,000
Louisiana			76,556	153,407	214,693	270,000
Arkansas Territory				14,273	30,608	51,809
[e]Wisconsin Ter. and New purchase					[d]3,608	15,000
Total	229,368	585,411	1,418,315	2,526,741	3,951,466	5,381,080
a Including Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.
b Including Arkansas.
c Including Alabama.
d Included with Michigan in the census of 1830.
e The country west of the Mississippi, and north of the State of Missouri, was ceded by the Sauk Indians, Sept. 1832. It now contains about 6000 inhabitants.

Probably there is no portion of the globe, of equal extent, that contains as much of soil fit for cultivation, and which is capable of sustaining and supplying with all the necessaries and conveniences, and most of the luxuries of life, so dense a population as this great Valley. Deducting one third of its surface for water and desert, which is a very liberal allowance, and there remains 866,667 square miles, or 554,666,880 acres of arable land.

Let it become as populous as Massachusetts, which contains 610,014 inhabitants on an area of 7,800 square miles, or seventy-eight to every 640 acres, and the population of this immense region will amount to 67,600,000. The child is now born which will live to see this result. Suppose its population to become equally dense with England, including Wales, which contains 207 to the square mile, and its numbers will amount to 179,400,000. But let it become equal to the Netherlands, the most populous country on the globe, containing 230 to the square mile, and the Valley of the Mississippi teems with a population of 200 millions, a result which may be had in the same time that New England has been gathering its two millions. What reflections ought this view to present to the patriot, the philanthropist, and the christian.

Physical Features. The physical features of this Valley are peculiar.

1. It includes two great inclined planes, one on its eastern, and the other on its western border, terminating with the Mississippi.

2. This river receives all the waters produced on these slopes, which are discharged by its mouths into the gulf of Mexico.

3. Every part of this vast region can be penetrated by steamboats, or other water craft; nor is there a spot in all this wide region, excepting a small district in the vast plains of Upper Missouri, that is more than one hundred miles from some navigable water. A boat may take in its lading on the banks of the Chatauque lake, in the State of New York; another may receive its cargo in the interior of Virginia; a third may start from the rice lakes at the head of the Mississippi; and a fourth may come laden with furs from the Chippewan mountains, 2,800 miles up the Missouri, and all meet at the mouth of the Ohio, and proceed in company to the ocean.

4. With the exception of its eastern and western borders, there are no mountains. Some portions are level, a large part is gently undulating, or what in the west is called "rolling," and the remainder is made up of abrupt hills, flint and limestone ridges, bluffs, and ravines.

5. It is divided into two great portions, the Upper, and Lower Valley, according to its general features, climate, staple productions, and habits of its population. The parallel of latitude that cuts the mouth of the Ohio river, will designate these portions with sufficient accuracy.

North of this line the seasons are regularly divided into spring, summer, autumn, and winter. In the winter there is usually more or less snow, ice forms and frequently blocks up the rivers, navigation is obstructed, and cotton is not produced in sufficient quantity or quality to make it a staple for exportation. It is the region of furs, minerals, tobacco, hemp, live stock, and every description of grain and fruit that grows in New England. Its white population are mostly accustomed to labor.

South of this line, cotton, tobacco, indigo, and sugar are staples. It has little winter, snow seldom covers the earth, ice never obstructs the rivers, and most of the labor is done by slaves.

Rivers. The rivers are, the Mississippi and its tributaries, or more correctly, the Missouri and its tributaries. If we except the Amazon, no river can compare with this for length of its course, the number and extent of its tributaries, the vast country they drain, and their capabilities for navigation. Its tributaries generally issue either from the eastern or western mountains, and flow over this immense region, diffusing not only fertility to the soil, but affording facilities for commerce a great part of the year.

The Missouri is unquestionably the main stream, for it is not only longer and discharges a larger volume of water than the Mississippi above its mouth, but it has branches, which, for the extent of country they drain, their length, and the volume of water they discharge, far exceed the upper Mississippi.

The characteristics of these two rivers are each distinctly marked. The Missouri is turbid, violent in its motions, changing its currents; its navigation is interrupted or made difficult by snags, sawyers and planters, and it has many islands and sand-bars. Such is the character of the Mississippi below the mouth of the Missouri. But above its mouth, its waters are clear, its current gentle, while it is comparatively free from snags and sand-bars.

The Missouri, which we have shown to be the principal stream, rises in the Chippewan, or Rocky mountains in latitude 44° north, and longitude about 35° west from Washington city. It runs a northeast course till after it receives the Yellow Stone, when it reaches past the 48° of latitude, thence an east, then a south, and finally a southeastern course, until it meets the current of the Mississippi, 20 miles above St. Louis, and in latitude 38° 45' north. Besides numerous smaller streams, the Missouri receives the Yellow Stone and Platte, which of themselves, in any other part of the world, would be called large rivers, together with the Sioux, Kansau, Grand, Chariton, Osage, and Gasconade, all large and navigable rivers.

Its length, upon an entire comparative course, is 1870 miles, and upon a particular course, about 3000 miles. Lewis and Clark make the distance from the Mississippi to the great falls, 2580 miles.

There are several things in some respects peculiar to this river, which deserve notice.

1. Its current is very rapid, usually at the rate of four or five miles an hour, when at its height; and it requires a strong wind to propel a boat with a sail against it. Steam overcomes its force, for boats ply regularly from St. Louis to the towns and landings on its banks within the borders of the state, and return with the produce of the country. Small steamboats have gone to the Yellow Stone for furs.

Owing to the shifting of its current, and its snags and sand-bars, its navigation is less safe and pleasant than any other western river, but these difficulties are every year lessened by genius and enterprise.

2. Its water is always turbid, being of a muddy, ash color, though more so at its periodical rise than at other times. This is caused by extremely fine sand, received from the neighborhood of the Yellow Stone. During the summer flood, a tumbler of water taken from the Missouri, and precipitated, will produce about one fourth of its bulk in sediment.

This sediment does not prevent its habitual use by hundreds who live on its banks, or move in boats over its surface. Some filtrate it, but many more drink it, and use it for culinary purposes, in its natural state.

When entirely filtrated, it is the most limpid and agreeable river water I ever saw. Its specific gravity then, is about equal to rain water; but in its turbid state, it is much heavier than ordinary river water, for a boat will draw three or four inches less in it than in other rivers, with the same lading, and the human body will swim in it with but very little effort.

It possesses some medicinal properties. Placed in an open vessel and exposed to the summer's sun, it remains pure for weeks. Eruptions on the skin and ulcerous sores are cured by wading or frequent bathings, and commonly it produces slight cathartic effects upon strangers upon its first use.

The width of the Missouri river at St. Charles, is 550 yards. Its alluvial banks however are insecure, and are not unfrequently washed away for many yards at its annual floods. The bed of its channel is also precarious, and is elevated or depressed by the deposition or removal of its sandy foundation. Hence the elevation or depression of the surface of this river, affords no criterion of its depth, or of the volume of water it discharges at any one period.

Undulatory motions, like the boiling of a pot, are frequently seen on its surface, caused by the shifting of the sand that forms its bed.

The volume of water it ordinarily discharges into the Mississippi is vastly disproportionate to its length, or the number and size of its tributaries. I have seen less than six feet depth of water at St. Charles at a low stage, and it was once forded by a soldier, at Bellefontaine, four miles above its junction with the Mississippi.

Evaporation takes up large quantities, but absorption throughout the porous soil of its wide bottoms consumes much more. In all the wells dug in the bottom lands of the Missouri, water is always found at the depth of the surface of the river, and invariably rises or sinks with the floods and ebbings of the stream. Volumes of sand frequently enter these wells as the river rises.

Its periodical floods deserve notice. Ordinarily this river has three periods of rising and falling each year. The first rise is caused by the breaking up of winter on the Gasconade, Osage, Kansau, Chariton, Grand, and other branches of the lower Missouri, and occurs the latter part of February, or early in March. Its second rise is usually in April, when the Platte, Yellow Stone, and other streams pour into it their spring floods. But the flood that more usually attracts attention takes place from the 10th to the 25th of June, when the melting snows on the Chippewan mountains pour their contents into the Missouri. This flood is scarcely ever less than five, nor more than 20 feet at St. Louis, above the ordinary height of the river. On two occasions, however, since the country was known to the French, it has arisen to that height in the Mississippi as to flow over the American Bottom in Illinois, and drive the inhabitants of Cahokia and Kaskaskia from their villages to the bluffs. Rain in greater or less quantities usually falls during the rise of the river, and ceases when the waters subside. So uniform is this the case in Upper Missouri, the region beyond the boundary of the State, that the seasons are divided into wet and dry.

Pumice stones and other volcanic productions occasionally float down its waters.

Mississippi River. The extreme head of the longest branch of the Mississippi river, has been found in lake Itaska, or Lac la Biche, by Mr. Schoolcraft, who states it to be elevated 1500 feet above the Atlantic ocean, and distant 3,160 miles from the extreme outlet of the river at the gulf of Mexico. The outlet of Itaska lake, which is connected with a string of small lakes, is ten or twelve feet broad, and twelve or fifteen inches deep. This is in latitude about 48° north. From this it passes Cedar and several smaller lakes, and runs a winding course, 700 miles, to the falls of St. Anthony, where its waters are precipitated over a cataract of 16 or 17 feet perpendicular. It then continues a southeastern course to the Missouri, in N. lat, 38° 38', receiving the St. Croix, Chippewa, Wisconsin, Rock and Illinois rivers, with many smaller streams from the east, and the St. Peter's, Iowa, Des Moines, and Salt rivers, besides a number of smaller ones from the west. The current of the Missouri strikes that of the Mississippi at right angles, and throws it upon the eastern shore. When at a low stage, the waters of the two rivers are distinct till they pass St. Louis.

The principal branch of the Upper Mississippi, is the St. Peter's, which rises in the great prairies in the northwest, and enters the parent stream ten miles below the falls of St. Anthony. Towards the sources of this river the quarries exist from which are made the red stone pipes of the Indians. This is sacred ground. Hostile tribes meet here, and part unmolested.

Rock river drains the waters from the northern part of Illinois and Wisconsin, and enters the parent stream at 41° 30' north latitude. In latitude 39° comes in the Illinois, signifying the "River of Men;" and eighteen miles below this, it unites with, and is lost in the Missouri.

Custom has fixed unalterably, the name Mississippi, to this united body of waters, that rolls its turbid waves towards the Mexican gulf; though, as has been intimated, it is but a continuation of the Missouri.

Sixty miles below St. Louis, the Kaskaskia joins it, after a devious course of 400 miles. In 37° north latitude, the Ohio pours in its tribute, called by the early French explorers, "La Belle Rivière," the beautiful river. A little below 34°, the White river enters after a course of more than 1,000 miles. Thirty miles below that, the Arkansas, bringing its tribute from the confines of Mexico, pours in its waters. Above Natchez, the Yazoo from the east, and eighty miles below, the Red river from the west, unite their waters with the Mississippi. Red River takes its rise in the Mexican dominions, and runs a course of more than 2,000 miles.

Hitherto, the waters in the wide regions of the west have been congregating to one point. The "Father of Waters," is now upwards of a mile in width, and several fathoms deep. During its annual floods, it overflows its banks below the mouth of the Ohio, and penetrates the numerous bayous, lakes, and swamps, and especially on its western side. In many places these floods extend thirty or forty miles into the interior. But after it receives the Red river, it begins to throw off its surplus waters, which flow in separate channels to the gulf, and never again unite with the parent stream. Several of these communications are held with the ocean at different and distant points.

Ohio River. The Ohio river is formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela, at Pittsburg. The Alleghany river rises not far from the head of the western branch of the Susquehannah, in the highlands of McKean county, Pennsylvania. It runs north till it penetrates Cataraugus county, New York, then turns west, then southwest, and finally takes a southern course to Pittsburg. It receives a branch from the Chatauque lake, Chatauque county, New York. The Monongahela rises near the sources of the Kenhawa, in western Virginia, and runs north till it meets the Alleghany.

The general course of the Ohio is southwest. Its current is gentle, and it receives a number of tributaries, which are noticed in the States where they run.

The Valley of the Mississippi has been arranged by Mr. Darby, into four great subdivisions.

1. The Ohio Valley, length 750 miles, and mean width 261; containing 196,000 square miles.

2. Mississippi Valley, above Ohio, including the minor valley of Illinois, but exclusive of Missouri, 650 miles long, and 277 mean width, and containing 180,000 square miles.

3. Lower Valley of the Mississippi, including White, Arkansas, and Red river vallies, 1,000 miles long, and 200 wide, containing 200,000 square miles.

4. Missouri proper, including Osage, Kansau, Platte rivers, &c. 1,200 miles long, and 437 wide, containing 523,000 square miles.

"The Valley of the Ohio is better known than any of the others; has much fertile land, and much that is sterile, or unfit for cultivation, on account of its unevenness. It is divided into two unequal portions, by the Ohio river; leaving on the right or northwest side 80,000, and on the left or southeast side, 116,000 square miles. The eastern part of this valley is hilly, and rapidly acclivous towards the Appalachian mountains. Indeed its high hills, as you approach these mountains, are of a strongly marked mountainous character. Of course the rivers which flow into the Ohio—the Monongahela, Kenhawa, Licking, Sandy, Kentucky, Green, Cumberland, and Tennessee—are rapid, and abounding in cataracts and falls, which, towards their sources, greatly impede navigation. The western side of this Valley is, also, hilly for a considerable distance from the Ohio, but towards its western limit, it subsides to a remarkably level region. So that whilst the eastern line of this Valley lies along the high table land, on which the Appalachian mountains rest, and where the rivers of the eastern section of this Valley rise, which is at least 2,000 miles generally above the ocean level; the western line has not an elevation of much more than half of that amount on the north, and which greatly subsides towards the Kaskaskia. The rivers of the western section are Beaver, Muskingum, Hockhocking, Scioto, Miami, and Wabash. Along the Ohio, on each side, are high hills, often intersected with deep ravines, and sometimes openings of considerable extent, and well known by the appellation of "Ohio hills." Towards the mouth of the Ohio, these hills almost wholly disappear, and extensive level bottoms, covered with heavy forests of oak, sycamore, elm, poplar, and cotton wood, stretch along each side of the river. On the lower section of the river, the water, at the time of the spring floods, often overflows these bottoms to a great extent. This fine Valley embraces considerably more than one half of the whole population of the entire Valley of the West. The western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, the entire states of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, the larger part of Tennessee, and a smaller part of Illinois, are in the Valley of the Ohio."

The Upper Valley of the Mississippi possesses a surface far less diversified than the Valley of the Ohio. The country where its most northern branches take their rise, is elevated table land, abounding with marshes and lakes, that are filled with a graniferous vegetable called wild rice. It is a slim, shrivelled grain of a brownish hue, and gathered by the Indians in large quantities for food. There are tracts of arable land covered with elm, linden, pine, hemlock, cherry, maple, birch and other timber common to a northern climate. From the same plateau flow the numerous branches of Red river, and other streams that flow into lake Winnipeck, and thence into Hudson's bay. Here, too, are found some of the head branches of the waters of St. Lawrence, that enter the Lake of the Woods, and Superior. In the whole country of which we are speaking, there is nothing that deserves the name of mountain. Below the falls of St. Anthony the river bluffs are often abrupt, wild and romantic, and at their base and along the streams are thousands of quartz crystals, carnelians and other precious stones.

But a short distance in the rear, you enter upon table land of extensive prairies, with clumps of trees, and groves along the streams. Further down, abrupt cliffs and overhanging precipices are frequently seen at the termination of the river alluvion.

The whole country northwest of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, as far north as the falls of St. Anthony, exhibits striking marks of a diluvial formation, by a gradual retiring of the waters. From the summit level that divides the waters of the lakes from those of the Mississippi, through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, which is scarcely a perceptible ridge, to the south point of Illinois at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, appears to have once been a plane with an inclination equal to 12 or 15 inches per mile. The ravines and vallies appear to have been gradually scooped out by the abrasion of the waters.

"The Lower Mississippi Valley, has a length of 1,200 miles, from northwest to southeast, considering the source of the Arkansas, and the mouth of the Mississippi river as extreme points; reaching from north latitude 29° to 42°, and without estimating mountains, ridges, or peaks, differs in relative elevation at least 500 feet.

"The Arkansas river rises near north latitude 42°, and longitude 32° west from Washington, and falls into the Mississippi at 33° 56', passing over eight degrees of latitude.

"Red River rises in the mountainous country of Mexico, north of Texas, in north latitude 34°; and west longitude 28° from Washington, and falls into the Mississippi in latitude 31°. They are both remarkable rivers for their extent, the number of their branches, the volume of their waters, the quantity of alluvion they carry down to the parent stream, and the color of their waters. Impregnated by saline particles, and colored with ocherous earth, the waters of these two rivers are at once brackish and nauseous to the taste, particularly near their mouths; that of Red river is so much so at Natchitoches at low water that it cannot be used for culinary purposes.

"At a short distance below the mouth of the Red river, a large bayou, (as it is called,) or outlet, breaks from the Mississippi on the west; by which, it is believed, that as large a volume of water as the Red river brings to the parent river, is drained off, and runs to the gulf of Mexico, fifty miles from the mouth of the Mississippi. The name of this bayou is Atchafalaya, or as it is commonly called, Chaffalio. Below this bayou, another of large dimensions breaks forth on the same side, and finally falls into the Atchafalaya. This is the Placquemine. Still lower, at Donaldsonville, ninety miles above New Orleans, on the same side, the Lafourche bayou breaks out, and pursues a course parallel to the Mississippi, fifty miles west of the mouth of that river. On the east side, the Ibberville bayou drains off a portion of the waters of the Mississippi, into lakes Maurepas, Ponchartrain, Borgnes, and the gulf of Mexico, and thus forms the long and narrow island of Orleans.

"In the lower Valley of the Mississippi there is a great extent of land of the very richest kind. There is also much that is almost always overflown with waters, and is a perpetual swamp. There are extensive prairies in this Valley; and towards the Rocky mountains; on the upper waters of the Arkansas and Red rivers, there are vast barren steppes or plains of sand, dreary and barren, like the central steppes of Asia. On the east of the Mississippi, are extensive regions of the densest forests, which form a striking contrast with the prairies which stretch on the west of that great river.

"The Valley of the Missouri extends 1200 miles in length, and 700 in width, and embraces 253,000 square miles. The Missouri river rises in the Chippewan mountains, through eight degrees, or nearly 600 miles. The Yellow Stone is its longest branch. The course of the Missouri, after leaving the Rocky mountains, is generally southeast, until it unites with the Mississippi. The principal branches flow from the southwest. They are the Osage, Kansas, Platte, &c. The three most striking features of this Valley are, 1st. The turbid character of its waters. 2d. The very unequal volumes of the right and left confluences. 3d. The immense predominance of the open prairies, over the forests which line the rivers. The western part of this Valley rises to an elevation towards the Chippewan mountains, equal to ten degrees of temperature. Ascending from the lower verge of this widely extended plain, wood becomes more and more scarce, until one naked surface spreads on all sides. Even the ridges and chains of the Chippewan, partake of these traits of desolation. The traveller, who has read the descriptions of central Asia, by Tooke or Pallas, will feel on the higher branches of the Missouri, a resemblance, at once striking and appalling; and he will acknowledge, if near to the Chippewan mountains in winter, that the utmost intensity of frost over Siberia and Mongolia, has its full counterpart in North America, on similar, if not on lower latitudes. There is much fertile land in the Valley of the Missouri, though much of it must be forever the abode of the buffalo and the elk, the wolf and the deer.[2]