navigable for many hundreds of miles, it passes for a great portion of
its course through a dry and open country, where the process of
evaporation is very rapid. The channel is rendered intricate by the
great number of islands and sandbars, and in many cases it is made
exceptionally hazardous by reason of countless snags.

Volumes have been written concerning the adventures of pioneers and gold
hunters, who went up the Missouri in advance of railroads and even
civilization, in order to trade with the Indians or to search for yellow
metal in the great hills in the unexplored country, where so much in the
way of easily acquired wealth is looked for. Some of the wealthiest men
in the West to-day have a vivid recollection of the dangers they
encountered on the voyage up this river, and of the enemies they had to
either meet or avoid. Sometimes hostile Indians would attack a boat
amid-stream from both sides of the river, and when an attempt was made
to bring gold or costly merchandise down the river, daring attacks were
often made by white robbers, whose ferocity and murderous designs were
quite as conspicuous as those of the aboriginal tribes. Many a murder
was committed, and the seeds were sown for countless mysteries and
unexplained disappearances.

The Ohio River is another of the great tributaries of the Mississippi.
In years gone by the importance of this waterway was enormous. The
Mississippi itself runs through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa,
Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. The
Ohio taps and drains a much older country than many of these States, and
hence its importance in the days when Cincinnati was the great gateway
of the West and a manufacturing city of first importance.

The Ohio is a great river for more than a thousand miles, and connects