CHAPTER II.

THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.

The source of the river.—­The importance of rivers to governments as well as commerce.—­Their binding force among peoples.—­The rapids at Keokuk.—­Railroad and steamboat travelling contrasted.—­Points at which travellers may take steamers.—­Characteristics of Western steamboats.—­Pleasuring on the Upper Mississippi.—­The scenery and its attractions.

The great central watershed of the continent is found within the boundaries of the State of Minnesota, and the rains precipitated on this elevated plateau move off in opposite directions, becoming the sources of some of the principal rivers of this vast interior basin, with their waters flowing both to the Arctic and Equatorial Seas.

The chief of these is that of the “Father of Waters,” rising in Lake Itaska, and emptying in the Mexican Gulf, separated by a distance of more than two thousand miles, washing in its course the shores of nine States, all embraced by this, the most fertile and important valley known to mankind.  As an aid to civilization and to commerce, its value can never be fully estimated or completely comprehended.

Rivers are frequently important, in connection with mountain ranges, as supplying natural boundaries for governments and peoples who dwell on either side; but, they likewise perform the more important office of binding with indissoluble bonds communities living along their banks and tributaries, from origin to outlet, making their interests common and population kin.

The European Carlyles and believers in the divine rights of kings have, in view of the influx of discordant races and the jarring elements within, together with the cumbrous machinery of our government, prophesied that disintegration and ruin would ere long be ours.  But they took no note of the harmony and fraternal feeling that must come between peoples so differing, when all have equal share in a government founded in justice, and on the broad principles of human right; and, last but not least, the important influence of those commercial relations which we sustain to each other, growing out of the general configuration and accessibility of the country occupied and governed.

The Mississippi River is the natural outlet and grand highway to the Northwest, and contributed everything toward its early settlement; so that a sketch of it seems indispensable in connection with that of the State in which it has its rise, and with which its chief interest and history are intertwined.

It is practically divided into two sections, that below Keokuk being known as the Lower, and that above (the part of which we now propose to consider) as the

UPPER MISSISSIPPI.

This designation comes from having well-defined boundaries, in consequence of a ledge of rocks lying across the river immediately above the city of Keokuk, which, during the lower stages of water, wholly prevents the passage of the larger class of steamers plying on the river below.