And the great Missouri, king of floods, was born.
It was there when, dank and noisome,
On the primal beds of shale
The fern and cycad forests fringed its shore,
And its depths have heaved in whirlpools
To the thresh of fin and tail
As the monster sea-snakes closed in deadly war.
Foot by foot through crumbling valleys
It has fought the Glacial Drift
As from out the North the rock-fanged moraines spread,