(236.)

By far the most remarkable and important of all the American rivers is the Mississippi and its tributaries. That part of the American continent which extends from the southern shores of the great northern lakes to the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, is watered by these great streams. The main stream of the Mississippi has its fountains in the tract of country lying north of the Illinois and east of Lake Michigan, in latitude forty-three degrees. At about latitude thirty-nine degrees, a little north of St. Louis, it receives the waters of the Missouri, and further south, at the latitude of thirty-seven degrees, the Ohio flows into it, after traversing five degrees of longitude and four of latitude, and winding its way from the Alleghany range through several of the states, and forming a navigable communication with numerous important towns of the Union, among which may be mentioned Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Frankfort, Lexington, and Louisville. The main stream of the Mississippi, after receiving the waters of the Arkansas, and numerous other minor tributaries, flows into the Gulf of Mexico by four mouths. The main stream of the Mississippi, independently of its tributaries, forms an unbroken course of inland navigation for a distance of nearly two thousand three hundred miles. Its width, through a distance of one thousand one hundred miles from its mouth, is not less than half a mile, and its average depth a hundred feet. The Ohio, its chief eastern tributary, flowing into it at a distance of about a thousand miles from its mouth, traverses also about the same extent of country, and is navigable throughout the whole of that extent. This river also has several navigable tributaries of considerable extent, among which may be mentioned the Muskingum, navigable for one hundred and twenty miles; the Miami, navigable for seventy-five miles; the Scioto, navigable for one hundred and twenty [Pg501] miles; the Tennessee, navigable for two hundred and fifty miles; the Cumberland, navigable for four hundred and forty miles; the Kentucky, navigable for one hundred and thirty miles; and the Green River, navigable for one hundred and fifty miles. The total length of the Ohio and its tributaries is estimated at above seven thousand miles.