Behold us, then, upon this celebrated river, whose singularities I
have attentively studied. The Mississippi takes its rise in several
lakes in the North. Its channel is very narrow at the mouth of the
Mesconsin, and runs south until it is affected by very high hills. Its
current is slow, because of its depth. In sounding we found nineteen
fathoms of water. A little further on it widens nearly three-quarters
of a league, and the width continues to be more equal. We slowly
followed its course to the south and southeast to the 42° N. lat. Here
we perceived the country change its appearance. There were scarcely
any more woods or mountains. The islands are covered with fine trees,
but we could could not see any more roebucks, buffaloes, bustards, and
swans. We met from time to time monstrous fish, which struck so
violently against our canoes, that at first we took them to be large
trees, which threatened to upset us. We saw also a hideous monster;
his head was like that of a tiger, his nose was sharp, and somewhat
resembled a wildcat; his beard was long; his ears stood upright; the
color of his head was gray; and his neck black. He looked upon us for
some time, but as we came near him our oars frightened him away. When
we threw our nets into the water we caught an abundance of sturgeons,
and another kind of fish like our trout, except that the eyes and nose
are much smaller, and they have near the nose a bone like a woman's
busk, three inches broad and a foot and a half long, the end of which
is flat and broad, and when it leaps out of the water the weight of it
throws it on its back.

Having descended the river as far as 41° 28', we found that turkeys
took the place of game, and the Pisikious that of other animals. We
called the Pisikious wild buffaloes, because they very much resemble
our domestic oxen; they are not so long, but twice as large. We shot
one of them, and it was as much as thirteen men could do to drag him