The Platte is in fact much more rapid than the Missouri, and drives the current on the northern shore, on which it is constantly encroaching. At some distance below the confluence, the Missouri is two miles wide, with a rapid current of ten miles an hour in some parts, the rapidity increasing as we approach the mouth of the Platte; the velocity of which, combined with the vast quantity of rolling sands which are drifting from it into the Missouri, renders it completely unnavigable, unless for flats or rafts, though the Indians pass it in small flat canoes made of hides, and the Americans have contrived to navigate it by means of keel-boats, which, being constructed to draw but little water, and built upon a small keel, are remarkably well adapted for sailing up rapid and shallow streams. The Platte runs a course of fifteen degrees of longitude, from west to east, or more than eight hundred miles.
The Kansas River has a considerable resemblance to the Missouri, but its current is more moderate, and its water less turbid, except at times of high floods. Its valley, like that of the Missouri, has a deep and fertile soil, bearing forests of cotton-wood, sycamore, and other trees, interspersed with meadows; but in ascending, trees become more and more scattered, and at length disappear almost entirely, the country at its sources being one immense prairie.
The River Osage, so called from the well known tribe of Indians inhabiting its banks, enters the Missouri one hundred and thirty-three miles above its confluence with the Mississippi. Its sources are in the Ozark Mountains. Flowing along the base of the north-western slope of a mountainous range, it receives from the east several rapid and beautiful tributaries. In point of magnitude this river ranks with the Cumberland and Tennessee. It has been represented as navigable for six hundred miles, but this Major Long considers an exaggeration, on account of the great number of shoals and sand-bars in its current. In the lower part of its course it traverses broad and fertile bottom-lands, bearing heavy forests of sycamore and cotton trees.
Charaton River is seventy-five yards wide at its mouth, and navigable at high water one hundred and fifty miles. Half a mile from its confluence with the Missouri, it receives the Little Charaton, also a considerable stream, and navigable for many miles. The Charaton has its source near the De Moyen river of the Mississippi, and traverses a country which is of great importance, both on account of the fertility of its soil, and its inexhaustible mines of gold.
The Arkansas River rises in the Rocky Mountains in north latitude forty-two degrees, near the borders of the territory of the United States and Mexico. It is about two thousand miles in length, running in a direction east south-east. Tributary streams are little known; they are remarkable for being deeply impregnated with salt. That part of Arkansas that traverses the Missouri territory is skirted, in great part, by extensive prairies. Spurs of the Masserne Mountains often reach the river. It may be remarked as singular, that to the extent of upwards of three hundred miles in the lower part of the Arkansas, its valley is confined merely to the stream of the river; the waters of the Washita on one side, and White river on the other, rising almost from the very margin of the Arkansas. The land upon the Arkansas, in the Missouri territory, is in great part alluvial; and where not subject to overflow, excellent. The timber corresponds nearly to that of the state of Mississippi, in similar relative situations.
Red River rises about one hundred miles north-east of Santa Fé, in Mexico, at the base of a range of the Rocky Mountains, called the Caous, and after a very serpentine course of about two thousand five hundred miles, enters the Mississippi in thirty-one degrees fifteen minutes north latitude. There are many streams rising in the same mountains, flowing separately for three or four hundred miles, and then uniting to form the Red river. Of the regions in which the upper waters of these streams lie, but little is known. They are principally inhabited by the Pawnees. When the river enters Louisiana, its south bank is for a long distance the boundary between the United States and Texas. A great part of its course is through delightful prairies of a rich red soil, covered with grass and vines which bear delicious grapes. About a hundred miles above Natchitoches commences what is called the Raft; a swampy expansion of the alluvion to the width of twenty or thirty miles. The river divides into a great number of channels, many of them shallow; and for ages these channels have been becoming clogged with a mass of fallen timber carried down from the upper parts of the river.
At this place its navigation is effectually obstructed, except in a high stage of water, when keel-boats of ten or fifteen tons burden may pass it through devious channels, or bayoux, and ascend several miles above. That part of the river situated above the Raft is rendered impassable for boats of burden, by shoals and sand-bars in a moderate stage of water.9
The Washita, tributary to Red river, is navigable many miles. That portion of it situated within the valley of the Mississippi, denominated Black river, admits of constant navigation for boats of burden. White river is navigable in a moderate stage of water between three and four hundred miles. Of the rivers tributary to the Missouri, it is remarkable, that their mouths are generally blocked up with mud, after the subsiding of the summer freshet of that river, which usually takes place in the month of July. The freshets of the more southerly tributaries are discharged early in the season, and wash from their mouths the sand and mud previously deposited therein, leaving them free from obstructions. These freshets having subsided, the more northerly branches discharge their floods, formed by the melting of the snow, at a later period. The Missouri being thus swollen, the mud of its waters is driven up the mouth of its tributaries. These streams having no more freshets to expel it, their mouths remain thus obstructed till the ensuing spring.10
The St. Peter has its rise in a small lake about three miles in circumference, at the base of a remarkable ridge, distinguished by the name of Coteau des Prairies. It enters the Mississippi nine miles below the falls of St. Anthony. Its length in all its windings is about five hundred miles. Its course is exceedingly serpentine, and is interrupted by several rocky ridges, extending across the bed of the river and occasioning falls of considerable descent. During the times of spring freshets and floods, this river is navigable for boats from its mouth to the head of Big Stone Lake about fifteen miles from its sources. For a distance of about forty miles on the lower part of the river, it is from sixty to eighty yards only wide, and navigable for pirogues and canoes in all stages of the water; higher up, its navigation is obstructed in low water by numerous shoals and rapids. The aggregate descent of the St. Peter may be estimated at about one hundred and fifty feet, the general level of the country at its source having an elevation of about fifty feet above the river. The chief of its tributaries is the Blue-earth river, which flows in from the south a hundred miles west of the Mississippi by a mouth fifty yards in width. It is chiefly noted for the blue clay which the Indians procure upon its banks, and which is much employed in painting their faces and other parts of their bodies. The river St. Peter’s enters the Mississippi behind a large island, which is probably three miles in circumference, and is covered with the most luxuriant growth of sugar-maple, elm, ash, oak, and walnut. At the point of embouchure it is one hundred and fifty yards in width, with a depth of ten or fifteen feet. Its waters are transparent, and present a light blue tint on looking upon the stream. From this circumstance the Indians have given it the name of Clear-water river.
Red River of the north rises near the sources of the St. Peter’s; and by a northern and winding course runs nearly two hundred miles in our territorial limits; and then passes into the British dominions of Upper Canada, and empties into Lake Winnepeck. Its principal branches are Red Lake river and Moose river, the latter of which streams rises within a mile of fort Mandan on the Missouri. Red river is a broad, deep, and very interesting stream, abounding with fish, and the country along its banks with elk and buffaloes.
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