Travels in North America during the years 1834, 1835 and 1836 Volume 1 ; Including a visit to Cuba and the Azore Islands
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839 ...was he is not much broader than the lower part of the Ohio, while his stream is extremely muddy, and his banks low and tame; it is only when you ascend the mighty current for fifty or a hundred miles, and use the eye of the imagination as well as that of nature, THE " FATHER OF WATERS." 233 that you begin to understand all his might and majesty. You see him fertilising a boundless valley, bearing along in his course the trophies of his thousand victories over the shattered forest--here carrying away large masses of soil with all their growth, and there forming islands, destined, at some future period, to be the residence of man; as you approach Saint Louis, these islands become more frequent--the banks more lofty and picturesque; and while indulging in this prospect, it is then time for reflection to suggest that the current before you has flowed through two or three thousand miles, and has yet to travel one thousand three hundred more before reaching its ocean destination. A stranger, however, cannot endure the dirty and muddy appearance of the water, although he is told (and with truth) that, when placed in a barrel, or any other vessel, and allowed to settle, it purifies very rapidly and becomes excellent drinking-water, leaving a sediment of extreme depth and density. All travellers in this part of the world have agreed, that the Missouri has been ill used in having its name merged, after its junction with the Mississippi; whereas it is the broader, the deeper, the longer, and, in every respect, the finer river of the the cause of this apparent incongruity was explained to me, in a manner equally simple and satisfactory. When the French first 234 THE " FATHER OF WATERS." visited this great valley, they came from ...