Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1881 — The Mississippi—The Greatest River in the World. [ARTICLE]

The Mississippi—The Greatest River in the World.

BonTinT* TraTaltThe Mississippi is ft wonderful river, and, although X nave traveled through the four quarters or the globe I have never seen its compeer. The Nile, so famous in history, is insignificant in comparison. The Mississippi is sui generis. Its restless current is constantly making changes in its hydrographical features. The workings of the currents and thpir changes are unobserved by the ordinary traveler who plows his way over the turbid surface on a swiftly moving steamer. All are hidden from him. It requires a residence of years on its banks to rightly understand the pecqlla? Dbilosophy qf its moving Waters. This I attentively studied during the fifteen years 1 was trading on flatboatg among the Indians and settlers along its banks in my early life. One of the most striking peculiarities of the river is the uniformity of its meanders or bends. Some es these are so uniform and regular that they have the appearance of having been described by the sweep of a compass, and consequently the course of the stream is very sinuous. The bends are consequently doubling on themjselves and forming what are called “cut-ofls,” and the river is traveling about in the alluvium, after changing its bed many times, as well as its form.

The Red river bend swept aronnd some fourteen, miles, Walker’s bend fourteen miles. The Red river bend broke through and cut off its fourteen miles. The state afterward set men to cut oft Walker’s bend into Tunica bend, thus reducing apparently the length of toe river sixteen miles, a total in the two eut-ofts of about 80 miles, which entirely changed the hydrography of the river. This also brought the mouth of Red river some ten miles lower down t.h«.n its original position in the bend. When these cut-offs oocuj the channels of the old river, or - rather the opening of the old river into the new close, or. as the people call it, “grows up,” and in A few years the olcT river is shut completely out of sight and forms a lake back in the . forests. These lakes or old rivers are traceable all along the lower river. This “growing up” is another peculiarity of the Musiasippi, and would not be noticed by an ordinary traveler, unless the bend or Island undergoing this process is pointed out and the philosophy explained to him. The explanation is this: When a bend breaks through an eddy is formed directly under the point of the old river. In this eddy a sandbar forms, and on thit sandbar, in*a short time, the alluvium, held in suspension by the waters, is precipitated, when immediately the young cottonwood trees begin to grow. Every year a new line of trees makes its appearance, and so .on, y6ar after year, and shuts the old river out from view. The rows of cottonwood in their growth are so exceedingly uniform ana regular that they have the appearance of having been set oat by human hands to ornament a park or pleasure garden.