the Hoang River, “the sorrow of Han,” broke through its restraining banks, and poured its flood into the Gulf of Pe-chee-lee, 350 miles distant from its former mouth.]

With La Salle’s exploration the future importance of the Mississippi began; and though the railway has of late years largely supplanted it as a commercial highway, yet, with the possible exception of the Ganges, no other river in the world transports yearly a greater tonnage of merchandise.  The early traders were content to carry their supplies back and forth in canoes.  As settlement and business increased, the canoe gave place to the raft, and the raft yielded to the flatboat.  In the course of time, steam was applied to the propulsion of boats, and the flatboat yielded to the inevitable:  the palatial steamboat was supreme.  But the days of the steamboat were numbered when the civil war cast its blight over the land; and when the years of strife were over, so also was the river traffic which had created the floating palaces of the Mississippi.  There were several things that operated to prevent the reorganization of the fleet of steamboats which for size, beauty and capacity were found in no other part of the world.  Many of these boats had been destroyed, and the companies that owned them were financially ruined.  Most of those remaining were purchased or confiscated for military purposes, and rebuilt either as transports or as gunboats.  A period of unparalleled railway construction began at the close of the war, and most of the traffic was turned to the railway.  Finally, it was discovered that a puffy, wheezy tug, with its train of barges, costing but a few thousand dollars, and equipped with half a score of men, could, at a much less rate, tow a vastly greater cargo than the river steamer.  That discovery was the knell of the old-time steamboat, and the beginning of a new era of navigation.  Powerful as the railway may be, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that a tug and train of barges will carry a cargo of merchandise from St. Paul to St. Louis for one-tenth the sum the consignee must pay for railway transportation.  So, to-day, the river is just as important as a highway of commerce as it was in the palmy days of the floating palace and river greyhound.  Railway traffic has enormously increased, but river traffic along the most wonderful of streams has not materially lessened.

The Mississippi is certainly a wonderful river.  From Elk Lake to the Gulf of Mexico it has a variable length of about 2,800 miles; from Pass a l’Outre to the head of the Missouri its extent is nearly 4,200 miles—­a length not equaled by any other river in the world.  It is evident, by a moment of reflection, that a river which traverses a great extent of latitude offers much greater facilities for commerce and settlement than a longitudinal river.  The Mississippi traverses a greater breadth of latitude than any other river, except the Nile, for its sources are in regions of almost arctic cold, while its delta