“Yes it does!” exclaimed Jule. “You’re in need of mental rest, young man.”
“Certainly it does,” Alex. insisted. “The longest stretch of water takes the river name, doesn’t it? Well, the Missouri is about three thousand miles long from the fountain-heads of the Gallatin, Madison and Red Rock lakes to the junction with the Mississippi, while from the junction to headwaters the Mississippi is only about twelve hundred miles long!”
“It does seem as if the longest river should carry the name,” said Case. “In that event, this would be the Missouri river!”
“Sure it would,” insisted Alex. “The river from the Red Rock lakes to the Gulf is the longest river in the world—eight hundred miles longer than the Amazon, though not so wide! Some day the name of the Missouri will become the Mississippi, or the Mississippi will be called the Missouri!”
The boys argued over the proposition for a long time, until it was time to get supper, and then Clay and Alex. began watching for ducks, with which the river swarms at times. While they secured three fair-sized birds, Alex. caught fish, and insisted on their being cooked with the ducks.
“I’ll never get enough to eat if I leave the menu to you boys,” he declared, “and Mose feels about it just as I do!” he added, pulling the little negro’s ear.
“Ah sure do feel empty!” answered Mose, rolling up his eyes.
The Mississippi is a tangle of channels and islands above Memphis, and the boys decided to tie up for the night on the down-stream side of one of the little “tow-heads” which are so frequently seen close to larger islands. These are formed by deposits of sand and vegetable matter, but they increase in size rapidly as soon as cotton-wood brush takes possession of the new ground, assisting materially in resisting the encroachments of the current.
The islands of the Mississippi are numerous and uncertain as to location. They have all been formed by the cutting of new channels across headlands. The river itself winds like a very crooked snake through the soft bottom lands of the south, and the water is forever finding new and shorter ways to reach the Gulf.
From the junction of the Ohio, there are one hundred and twenty-five numbered islands from Cairo to Bayou la Fourche, in Louisiana, and besides these there are nearly as many more which bear the names of the owners. Many of these islands are grown up with impenetrable thickets or show only deserted fields.