Life on the Mississippi

Life on the Mississippi

The Project Gutenberg EBook Life On The Mississippi, by Mark
Twain #10 in our series by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
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Title: Life On The Mississippi, Complete
Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Release Date: Apr, 1995 [Etext #0245] [This file was first posted on
April, 1995] [This file was last updated on July 14, 2003]
Edition: 12

Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK,
MISSISSSIPPI, TWAIN ***

Produced by David Widger [[email protected]] from a previous
etext produced by Graham Allan

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
BY MARK TWAIN

THE 'BODY OF THE NATION'
BUT the basin of the Mississippi is the BODY OF THE NATION. All
the other parts are but members, important in themselves, yet more
important in their relations to this. Exclusive of the Lake basin and of
300,000 square miles in Texas and New Mexico, which in many
aspects form a part of it, this basin contains about 1,250,000 square
miles. In extent it is the second great valley of the world, being
exceeded only by that of the Amazon. The valley of the frozen Obi
approaches it in extent; that of La Plata comes next in space, and
probably in habitable capacity, having about eight-ninths of its area;
then comes that of the Yenisei, with about seven-ninths; the Lena,
Amoor, Hoang-ho, Yang-tse-kiang, and Nile, five-ninths; the Ganges,
less than one-half; the Indus, less than one-third; the Euphrates,
one-fifth; the Rhine, one-fifteenth. It exceeds in extent the whole of
Europe, exclusive of Russia, Norway, and Sweden. IT WOULD
CONTAIN AUSTRIA FOUR TIMES, GERMANY OR SPAIN FIVE
TIMES, FRANCE SIX TIMES, THE BRITISH ISLANDS OR ITALY
TEN TIMES. Conceptions formed from the river-basins of Western
Europe are rudely shocked when we consider the extent of the valley of
the Mississippi; nor are those formed from the sterile basins of the great
rivers of Siberia, the lofty plateaus of Central Asia, or the mighty
sweep of the swampy Amazon more adequate. Latitude, elevation, and
rainfall all combine to render every part of the Mississippi Valley

capable of supporting a dense population. AS A DWELLING-PLACE
FOR CIVILIZED MAN IT IS BY FAR THE FIRST UPON OUR
GLOBE.
EDITOR'S TABLE, HARPER'S MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 1863


Chapter 1
The River and Its History
THE Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace
river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. Considering the
Missouri its main branch, it is the longest river in the world--four
thousand three hundred miles. It seems safe to say that it is also the
crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up
one thousand three hundred miles to cover the same ground that the
crow would fly over in six hundred and seventy-five. It discharges
three times as much water as the St. Lawrence, twenty-five times as
much as the Rhine, and three hundred and thirty-eight times as much as
the Thames. No other river has so vast a drainage-basin: it draws its
water supply from twenty-eight States and Territories; from Delaware,
on the Atlantic seaboard, and from all the country between that and
Idaho on the Pacific slope--a spread of forty-five degrees of longitude.
The Mississippi receives and carries to the Gulf water from fifty-four
subordinate rivers that are navigable by steamboats, and from some
hundreds that are navigable by flats and keels. The area of its
drainage-basin is as great as the combined areas of England, Wales,
Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, and
Turkey; and almost all this wide region is fertile; the Mississippi valley,
proper, is exceptionally so.
It is a remarkable river in this: that instead of widening toward its
mouth, it grows narrower; grows narrower and deeper. From the
junction of the Ohio to a point half way down to the sea, the width
averages a mile in high water: thence to the