LAKE GEORGE, lies to the fouthward of Champlain, and is a moft clear, beautiful collection of water, about thirty-fix miles long and from one to feven miles wide. It embofoms more than two hundred iflands, fome fay three hundred and fixty-five; very few of which are any thing more than barren rock, covered with heath, and a few cedar, fpruce, and hemlock trees, and fhrubs, that harbor abundance of rattlefnakes. On each fide it is skirted by prodigious mountains, from which large quantities of red cedar are every year carried to New York, for fhip timber. The lake is full of fishes, and fome of the best kind; among which are the black Ofwego bafs and large fpeckled The water of this lake is about one hundred feet above the level of Lake Champlain. The portage between the two lakes is one mile and a half; but with a small expence might be reduced to fixty yards; and with one or two locks might be made navigable through for batteaux. This lake, in the French charts, is called Lake St. Sacrament; and it is faid that the Roman Catholics, in former times, were at the pains to procure this water for facramental ufes in all their Churches in Canada: hence probably it derived its name.

trouts.

The MISSISSIPPI RIVER, is the great refervoir of the waters of the Ohio and Illinois, and their numerous branches from the eaft; and of the Miffouri and other rivers from the weft. Thefe mighty ftreams united, are borne down with increafing impetuofity, through vaft forests and meadows, and difcharged into the Gulf of Mexico. The great length and uncommon depth of this river, and the exceffive muddiness and falubrious quality of its waters, after its junction with the Miffouri, are very fingular *. The direction of the channel is fo crooked, that from New Orleans to the mouth of the Ohio, a distance which does not exceed four hundred and fixty miles in a ftrait line, is about eight hundred and fifty-fix by water. It may be fhortened at least two hundred and fifty miles, by cutting across eight or ten necks of land, fome of which are not thirty yards wide. Charlevoix relates that in the year 1722, at Point Coupeé, or Cut Point, the river made a great turn, and fome Canadians, by deepening the channel of a small brook, diverted the waters of the river into it. The impetuofity of the ftream was fo violent, and

In a half pint tumbler of this water has been found a fediment of one inch. It is, notwithstanding, extremely whole fome and well tasted, and very cool in the hottest feafons of the year; the rowers, who are there employed, drink of it when they are in the strongest perspiration, and never receive any bad effects from it. The inhabitants of New Orleans ufe no other water than that of this river, which, by being kept in jars, becomes perfectly clear.

VOL. I.

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the foil, of fo rich and loose a quality, that, in a fhort time, the point was entirely cut through, and travellers faved fourteen leagues of their voyage. The old bed has no water in it, the times of the periodical overflowings only excepted. The new channel has been fince founded with a line of thirty fathoms, without finding a bottom. Several other points, of great extent, have, in like manner, been fince cut off, and the river diverted into new channels.

In the fpring floods the Miffiffippi is very high, and the current fo ftrong, that it is with difficulty it can be afcended; but this disadvantage is in part compensated by eddies or counter-currents, which are found in the bends clofe to the banks of the river, which runs with nearly equal velocity against the stream, and affift the afcending boats. The current at this feafon defcends at the rate of about five miles an hour. In autumn, when the waters are low, it does not run fafter than two miles, but it is rapid in fuch parts of the river, as have clusters of iflands, shoals, and fand-banks. The circumference of many of these fhoals being feveral miles, the voyage is longer, and in fome parts more dangerous than in the fpring. The merchandize neceffary for the commerce of the upper fettlements on or near the Miffiffippi, is conveyed in the fpring and autumn in batteaux, rowed by eighteen or twenty men, and carrying about forty tons. From New Orleans to the Illinois, the voyage is commonly performed in eight or ten weeks. A prodigious number of islands, fome of which are of great extent, intersperse this mighty river. Its depth increases as you ascend it. Its waters, after overflowing its banks below the river Ibberville on the east, and the river Rouge on the weft, never return within them again, there being many outlets or ftreams, by which they are conducted into the bay of Mexico, more especially on the weft fide of the Miffiffippi, dividing the country into numerous iflands. These fingularities diftinguish it from every other known river in the world. Below the Ibberville, the land begins to be very low on both fides of the river across the country, and gradually declines as it approaches nearer to the fea. The island of New Orleans, and the lands oppofite, are to all appearance of no long date; for in digging ever fo little below the furface, you find water and great quantities of trees. The many beaches and breakers, as well inlets, which have arifen out of the channel within the last half century, at the feveral mouths of the river, are convincing proofs that this peninfula was wholly formed in the fame manner, And it is certain that when La Salle failed down the Miffiffippi to the fea, the opening of that river was very different from what it is at present.

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The nearer you approach to the fea, this truth becomes more ftriking. The bars that crofs most of these small channels opened by the current, have been multiplied by means of the trees carried down with the ftreams; one of which stopped by its roots or branches in a fhallow part, is fufficient to obftruct the passage of thousands more, and to fix them at the fame place. Aftonishing collections of trees are daily feen in paffing between the Balize and the Missouri. No human force being fufficient for removing them, the mud carried down by the river ferves to bind and cement them together. They are gradually covered, and every inundation not only extends their length and breadth, but adds another layer to their height. In less than ten years time, canes, shrubs, and aquatic timber grow on them, and form points and islands, which forcibly shift the bed of the river.

Nothing can be afferted with certainty, respecting the length of this river. Its fource is not known, but fuppofed to be upwards of three thousand miles from the fea, as the river runs. We only know, that from St. Anthony's falls, in lat. 45°, it glides with a pleasant, clear current, and receives many large and very extensive tributary streams before its junction with the Missouri, without greatly increafing the breadth of the Miffiffippi, though they do its depth and rapidity. The muddy waters of the Miffouri difcolour the lower part of the river, till it empties itself into the bay of Mexico. The Missouri is a longer, broader, and deeper river than the Miffiffippi, and affords a more extenfive navigation; it is, in fact, the principal river, contributing more to the common ftream than does the Miffiffippi It has been afcended by French traders about twelve or thirteen hundred miles, and from the depth of water, and breadth of the river at that distance, it appeared to be navigable many miles further.

From the Missouri river, to nearly oppofite the Ohio, the western bank of the Miffiffippi, is, fome few places excepted, higher than the eastern. From Mine au fer, to the Ibberville, the eastern bank is higher than the western, on which there is not a single difcernible rifing or eminence for the distance of feven hundred and fifty miles. From the Ibberville to the fea there are no eminences on either fide, though the eafter bank appears rather the highest of the two, as far as the English turn. Thence the banks gradually diminish in height to the mouths of the river, where they are not more than two or three feet higher than the common furface of the water.

The flime which the annual floods of the river Miffiffippi leaves on the furface of the adjacent fhores, may be compared with that of the Nile,

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which depofits a fimilar manure, and for many centuries paft has infured the fertility of Egypt. When its banks fhall have been cultivated as the excellency of its foil and temperature of the climate deferve, its popula tion will equal that of any other part of the world. The trade, wealth, and power of America, may, at fome future period, depend, and perhaps centre, upon the Miffiffippi. This alfo refembles the Nile in the number of its mouths, all iffuing into a fea, that may be compared to the Mediterranean, which is bounded on the north and fouth by the two continents of Europe and Africa, as the Mexican Bay is by North and South America. The fmaller moutlis of this river might be eafily ftopped up, by means of thofe floating trees with which the river, during the floods, is always covered. The whole force of the channel being united, the only opening then left would probably grow deep, and the bar be removed.

Whoever for a moment will caft his eye over a map of the town of New Orleans, and the immenfe country around it, and view its advantageous fituation, must be convinced that it, or fome place near it, must, in process of time, become one of the greatest marts in the world.

The falls of St. Anthony, in about latitude 45°, received their name from Father Lewis Hennipin, a French miffionary, who travelled into these parts about the year one thousand fix hundred and eighty, and was the first European ever feen by the natives. The whole river, which is more than two hundred and fifty yards wide, falls perpendicularly about thirty feet, and forms a moft pleafing cataract. The rapids below, in the space of three hundred yards, render the defcent confiderably greater; fo that when viewed at a distance, they appear to be much higher than they really are. In the middle of the falls is a small ifland, about forty feet broad, and somewhat longer, on which grow a few cragged hemlock and fpruce trees; and about half way between this island and the eastern fhore is a rock, lying at the very edge of the fall, in an oblique pofition, five or fix feet broad, and thirty or forty long. Thefe falls are peculiarly fituated, as they are approachable without the leaft obftruction from any intervening hill or precipice, which cannot be faid of any other confiderable fall, perhaps, in the world. The country around is exceedingly beautiful. It is not an uninterrupted plain where the eye finds no relief, but compofed of many gentle afcents, which in the fpring and fummer are covered with verdure, and interfperfed with little groves, that give a pleasing variety to the profpect.

A little distance below the falls, is a fmall ifland of about an acre and an half, on which grow a great number of oak trees, almost all the

branches

branches of which, able to bear the weight, are, in the proper feafon of the year, loaded with eagles nefts. Their inftinctive wifdom has taught them to choose this place, as it is fecure, on account of the rapids above from the attacks either of man or beast.

From the best accounts that can be obtained from the Indians, we learn that the four moft capital rivers on the continent of North America, viz. the St. Lawrence, the Miffiffippi, the river Bourbon, and the Oregon, or the river of the Weft, have their fources in the fame neighbourhood. The waters of the three former, are faid to be within thirty miles of each other; the latter is rather farther weft.

This fhews that these parts are the highest lands in North America; and it is an instance not to be paralleled in the other three quarters of the globe, that four rivers of fuch magnitude fhould take their rise together, and each, after running separate courfes, discharge their waters into different oceans, at the diftance of more than two thousand miles from their fources. For in their paffage from this spot to the bay of St. Lawrence, eaft; to the bay of Mexico, fouth; to Hudson's Bay, north; and to the bay at the ftraits of Annian, weft; where the river Oregon is fuppofed to empty itself, each of them traverses upwards of

two thousand miles.

The Ohio is the most beautiful river on earth its current gentle, waters clear, and bofom smooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids, a fingle instance only excepted. It is one quarter of a mile wide at Fort Pitt five hundred yards at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway: twelve hundred yards at Louisville; and the rapids, half a mile, in fome few places below Louisville: but its general breadth does not exceed fix hundred yards. In fome places its width is not four hundred, and in one place particularly, far below the rapids, it is lefs than three hundred. Its breadth in no one place exceeds twelve hundred yards, and at its junction with the Miffiffippi, neither river is more than nine hundred yards wide. Its length, as measured according to its meanders by Capt. Hutchins, is as follows: