Santee is the largest river in the state of South Carolina, and is formed by the junction of the Congaree and Wateree rivers. The whole course of the Santee, including that of the Catawbaw or Wateree, is three hundred and fifty miles. It is navigable up to the point of junction by ships of burden.
The Savannah River which forms the boundary between South Carolina and Georgia, is a bold and deep stream, and is formed by the junction of the Keowee and Tugeloo, two small streams issuing from the Blue Ridge, two hundred and fifty miles from the sea. It runs in a straight south-east course all the way to its mouth, seventeen miles below Savannah. It is navigable for ships of any burden to within three miles of Savannah; for vessels of two hundred and fifty tons to Savannah; and for boats of one hundred feet keel, to Augusta, above which the rapids commence; after passing them, the river can be navigated in small boats, eighty miles higher, to the junction of the tributary rivers.
III. RIVERS OF THE PACIFIC AND THE GREAT LAKES.
The waters that rise on the western declivities of the Rocky Mountains flow into the Columbia, the Multnomah and the Lake Bueneventura. Columbia or Oregon river rises within a mile of the head-waters of the Missouri. It collects its tribute for a wide extent along the western dividing ridges of the mountains, and on emerging from them becomes at once a broad and deep stream. After receiving Clark’s and Lewis’ rivers, each a large stream, from the east, it widens to nine hundred and sixty yards, and forms a great southern bend through the second chain of mountains. One hundred and thirty-six miles below, are the great falls, where the river descends in one rapid, fifty-seven feet. Below these falls, it winds first to the north-west and then to the south-west, and passes through the third chain of mountains, where it is again compressed to the width of one hundred and fifty yards. Below this rapid, at one hundred and eighty miles from the sea, it meets the tide, beyond which it has a broad estuary to the sea. Sixty miles below the rapids, Multnomah, a very large and unexplored tributary, falls in from the north-east. The mouth of the river is in latitude forty-six degrees and twenty-four minutes, and the tide there rises eight feet and a half. The Columbia and its tributaries abound in the finest salmon, which is said to form the principal food of the savages west of the Rocky Mountains. Seals and other aquatic animals are taken in this river in great numbers, and the skins shipped to China constitute the chief article of trade from this great river. A number of the head streams of the Missouri interlock with the waters of the Columbia. The whole course of the river is about one thousand five hundred miles. As this river waters an immense territory which has recently become a subject of great interest, we have subjoined, in a note, a partial account of its navigation, from the interesting work of Mr. Ross Cox.13
The rivers which flow into the great lakes are, for the most part, small and unimportant. A permanent communication between their waters and those of the Mississippi might be formed by means of a short canal from the Fox or Chicago rivers, both of which empty into Lake Michigan. The Fox river rises near the Ouisconsin branch of the Mississippi, and afterwards flows within one and a half miles of its channel, separated from it only by a short portage over a prairie. During the season of high water, the intervening ground is overflowed, so that loaded boats may pass over it.
Saganaw River is a large and deep stream, with bold shores, and numerous tributaries, which water a large extent of very delightful and fertile country. The banks of this stream are inhabited by detached bands of Chippeway and Ottaway Indians, who have long derived an easy subsistence from the abundance of game and fish to be found in their neighborhood. The Saganaw empties into a fine bay of the same name, which is by far the largest of the numerous inlets which indent the very irregular shores of Lake Huron.
The Gennessee rises in Pennsylvania, and runs north across the west part of New York into Lake Ontario. Five miles from its mouth, at Rochester, are falls of ninety-six and seventy-five feet in descent; above these falls the stream is navigable for boats nearly seventy miles, where two other falls occur, of sixty and ninety feet, one of which is formed by the slope of land which extends from Lewiston on Niagara river. Black River receives its name from the color of its water. It rises in the highlands, north of the Mohawk, and its branches interlock with those of the Hudson; it pursues a northerly course of one hundred and twenty miles, and falls into Lake Ontario, near its outlet. It is a deep but sluggish stream, and the navigation is interrupted by falls; a series of which, called the Long Falls, extend fourteen miles. The land upon this stream is generally a rich, dark colored mould. The Oswegatchie consists of two branches, which unite four miles above their entrance into the St. Lawrence. The east branch is about one hundred and twenty miles long, and the west nearly one hundred; they are very crooked streams. The Oswego issues from Oneida Lake, and runs north-westerly into Lake Ontario; it is about forty miles long and is a rapid stream; its navigation is assisted by locks and canals. The Maumee rises in the north-eastern part of Indiana, and flows through the north-western part of Ohio into Lake Erie; it is broad and deep, but has an obstruction from shoals and rapids thirty-three miles above its mouth. The Sandusky rises in the northern part of Ohio, and flows northerly into Lake Erie; it is one hundred miles in length, and is navigable.
GENERAL REMARKS ON RIVERS.
The beds of rivers are the lowest parts of great chasms, formed by the same revolutions which produced the mountains. Running waters unceasingly wear away their beds and banks in places where their declivity is very rapid; they hollow out and deepen their channels in mountains composed of rocks of moderate hardness; they draw along stones, and form accumulations of them in the lower part of their course; and thus their beds are often gradually elevated in the plains, while they are deepened and depressed in the mountains. But these changes, though continually going on for thousands of years, could only give form to the banks of rivers; they in no wise created the banks themselves. Many great rivers flow with an almost imperceptible declivity. The river of the Amazons has only ten feet and a half declivity upon two hundred leagues of its course, making one twenty-seventh of an inch for every thousand feet. When a river is obstructed in its course by a bank of solid rocks, and finds beneath them a stratum of softer materials, its waters wear away the softer substance, and thus open for themselves a subterraneous passage, more or less long. Such are the causes which have formed the magnificent Rock Bridge in Virginia, an astonishing vault uniting two mountains, separated by a ravine two hundred and seventy feet in depth, in which the Cedar Creek flows. In Louisiana, trees, or rather whole forests, have been observed to fall on a river, covering it nearly with vegetable earth; and thus giving rise to a natural bridge which for leagues has hid the course of the river.
Rivers in running into the sea present a great variety of interesting phenomena; many form sand-banks, as the Senegal and the Nile; others, like the Danube, run with such force into the sea, that one can for a certain space distinguish the waters of the river from those of the sea. The waters of the little river Syre in Norway are discernable for a considerable distance in the sea. It is only by a very large mouth, like that of the Loire, the Elbe, or the Plata, that a river can peacefully mingle with the sea. Rivers even of this nature, however, sometimes experience the superior influence of the sea, which repels the waters into their bed. Thus the Seine forms at its mouth a bar of considerable extent; and the Garonne, unable to discharge with sufficient rapidity the waters which it accumulates in a kind of gulf between Bordeaux and its mouth, exhibits this aquatic mountain, stopped by the flow of the tide rolling backwards, inundating the banks, and stopping vessels in their progress both up and down. This phenomenon, termed the Mascaret, is only the collision of two bodies of water moving in opposite directions. The most sublime phenomenon of this kind which presents itself is that of the giant of rivers Orellana, called the river of the Amazons. Twice a day it pours out its imprisoned waves into the bosom of the ocean. A liquid mountain is thus raised to the height of one hundred and eighty feet; it frequently meets the flowing tide of the sea, and the shock of these two
