CHAPTER Y
Of all the great rivers in the world, the Missis sippi is perhaps the crookedest. A ship sailingover its waters will often travel a dis- physicaltance of thirty miles to reach a point characters-
. . tics of the
eight or ten miles distant from its start- Mississippi ing-place. This crookedness is not like nver -that of the New England stream that flows ingraceful curves through deep valleys worn downinto the granite by long ages of rubbing and grind-ing under the pressure of glaciers. The Missis sippi flows through a soft alluvial soil, in which itcuts fresh channels to right or left at the occurrenceof the slightest obstacle to its direct progress. Itis thus continually leaving its old bed for a newone, so that its long course is marked by countlessswampy islands and peninsulas, while on eitherside may be seen stagnant crescent-shaped lakes,the remnants of its abandoned channels. The Mis sissippi water is so crowded with fine particles ofreddish-brown alluvial mud that when dipped upin a tumbler it looks like diluted chocolate, and