miles below this, it unites with, and is lost in the Missouri.

Custom has fixed unalterably, the name _Mississippi_, to this united
body of waters, that rolls its turbid waves towards the Mexican gulf;
though, as has been intimated, it is but a continuation of the Missouri.

Sixty miles below St. Louis, the Kaskaskia joins it, after a devious
course of 400 miles. In 37 deg. north latitude, the Ohio pours in its
tribute, called by the early French explorers, "La Belle Riviere," the
beautiful river. A little below 34 deg., the White river enters after a
course of more than 1,000 miles. Thirty miles below that, the Arkansas,
bringing its tribute from the confines of Mexico, pours in its waters.
Above Natchez, the Yazoo from the east, and eighty miles below, the Red
river from the west, unite their waters with the Mississippi. Red River
takes its rise in the Mexican dominions, and runs a course of more than
2,000 miles.

Hitherto, the waters in the wide regions of the west have been
congregating to one point. The "Father of Waters," is now upwards of a
mile in width, and several fathoms deep. During its annual floods, it
overflows its banks below the mouth of the Ohio, and penetrates the
numerous bayous, lakes, and swamps, and especially on its western side.
In many places these floods extend thirty or forty miles into the
interior. But after it receives the Red river, it begins to throw off
its surplus waters, which flow in separate channels to the gulf, and
never again unite with the parent stream. Several of these
communications are held with the ocean at different and distant points.

_Ohio River._ The Ohio river is formed by the junction of the Alleghany
and Monongahela, at Pittsburg. The Alleghany river rises not far from
the head of the western branch of the Susquehannah, in the highlands of
McKean county, Pennsylvania. It runs north till it penetrates Cataraugus
county, New York, then turns west, then southwest, and finally takes a
southern course to Pittsburg. It receives a branch from the Chatauque
lake, Chatauque county, New York. The Monongahela rises near the
sources of the Kenhawa, in western Virginia, and runs north till it
meets the Alleghany.

The general course of the Ohio is southwest. Its current is gentle, and
it receives a number of tributaries, which are noticed in the States
where they run.

The Valley of the Mississippi has been arranged by Mr. Darby, into four
great subdivisions.

1. The _