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liabilities, $2,286,727.19; capital stock, $625,000; individual deposits, $942,205.12. 1882, 17 state banks and trust cos. had an aggregate capital of $614,590, and 11 savings banks an aggregate capital of not far from $423,615.

Religious Denominations, Education, etc.-The leading denominations, numerically, are the Baptist, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Cumberland Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic.

The constitution of the state at the time of its admission to the union recognized the need of a good common-school system, and congress was asked for an appropriation of public lands to promote the object. Grants were accordingly made at different times, amounting in all to 10,697,882 acres; but the proceeds of the lands sold were often lost by mismanagement. After the civil war new interest was aroused, and a common-school system was established. In 1886 a system of districts to limit the number of schools was established. Of the illiterate population, 10 years of age and upward, 1880, 315,612 could not read. The population of school age (5 to 21), 1886-87, was 471,352-269,099 colored; enrolled, 270,744-143,825 colored; enrolled in private schools (1885-86), 18,000; male teachers, 3261; female, 2752; average monthly pay, white teachers, $34.21; colored, $26.92; receipts, $972,878; expenditures, $839,797.

The state normal school is at Holly Springs; there is a normal institute at Iuka, and normal instruction is given at Natchez seminary (colored), Tougaloo univ., Rust univ. (formerly Shaw univ.), and at Union female coll. There is a Protestant Episcopal theological school at Dry Grove, a Roman Catholic theological sem. at Jackson, and Rust univ. and Natchez sem. (Bap.) have theological courses. The univ. of Mississippi has a law department. The Agricultural and Mechanical coll. at Starkville gives free tuition to students from the state. The univ. of M. at Oxford has classical, scientific, and law departments; while Alcorn univ. (colored) at Rodney has scientific and agricultural departments. Tougaloo univ. and the Southern Christian institute at Edwards have industrial training schools, and there is an industrial institute for white girls at Columbus. There are, besides, Mississippi coll. (Bap.) at Clinton, Pass Christian coll. (R. C.) at Pass Christian, Madison coll. at Sharon, Tougaloo univ. (unsectarian, but under Cong. auspices) at Tougaloo, and Rust univ. (M. E.) at Holly Springs; and 8 institutions for the superior instruction of women, mostly under the patronage of different Christian sects. The state library at Jackson was, in 1880, the only one containing 10.000 vols and upward. Of 139 newspapers and periodicals published in 1887, 9 were dailies, 120 weeklies, and 5 monthlies.

Government, etc.-The capital is Jackson. The governor, who receives $4000 salary, and the other state officers, excepting the commissioner of lands, are elected for 4 years. The legislature meeting biennially, on the Tuesday after the first Monday in Jan., is composed of 40 senators elected for 4 years and 120 representatives elected for 2 years, who receive $400 salary. There is no limit to their session. State elections are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in Nov. In order to vote at general elections, one must have lived 6 months in the state and one month in the co. The supreme court of M. has 3 justices appointed by the governor and senate, who hold office 9 years and receive $3500 salary each. The circuit court is composed of 15 judges (corresponding with the number of judicial districts), appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, for a term of 6 years. The judges of the court of chancery, 20 in number, are appointed by the governor for 4 years. The salaries of the circuit court judges are $2500, and those of the chancery court judges $2500. Women can hold the office of notary public.

The legal rate of interest is 6 per cent.; 10 is allowed by contract. The penalty for usury is forfeiture of all the interest. A general license law was passed in 1871. A local-option liquor law was passed in 1886. Women may vote by petition on the sale of liquor. The state reformatory and charitable institutions are the asylums for the deaf, dumb, and blind, near Jackson; the asylum for the insane and the penitentiary at the same place; the Eastern M. asylum for the insane, and the soldiers' orphans' home near Lauderdale Springs. The militia, 1888, comprised 1525 officers and privates; unorganized, but available for military duty, 140,000.

The electoral votes have been cast as follows: 1820, Monroe and Tompkins, 2, 1 vacancy; 1824, Jackson and Calhoun, 3; 1828, Jackson and Calhoun, 3; 1832, Jackson and Van Buren, 4; 1836, Jackson and R. M. Johnson, 4; 1840, Harrison and Tyler, 4; 1844, Polk and Dallas, 6; 1848, Cass and Butler, 6; 1852, Pierce and King, 7; 1856, Buchanan and Breckenridge, 7; 1860, Breckenridge and Lane, 7; 1864, no vote; 1868, 7 vacancies ; 1872, Grant and Wilson, 8; 1876, Tilden and Hendricks, 8; 1880, Hancock and English, 8; 1884, Cleveland and Hendricks, 9; 1888, Cleveland and Thurman, 9.

Finances, etc.-The funded debt, 1887, was $1,105,150; unfunded, $1,830,108; state receipts, $1,069,568; expenditures, $1,029,638; rate of tax on $100, 35 cents; amount of real estate as assessed, 1886, $87,282,454; personal property, $35,454,384.

Population. In 1800, 8850-3489 slave, 182 free colored; 1820, 75,448-32,814 slave, 458 free colored; 1840, 375,651-195,211 slave, 458 free colored; 1860, 791,305-436,631 slave, 773 free colored; 1880, 1,131,597-650,291 colored-1857 civilized or taxed Indians, 51 Chinese; foreign born, 9209; families, 215,055; dwellings, 208, 297; persons to sq.m., 24.4; engaged in agriculture, 339,938; in professional and personal services, 49,448. The rank of M. among the states was 13 in value of agricultural products, 35

in manufactures, and 18 in population. Population of state, 1888, 1,300,000. There are 94 cos.; for pop., 1880, see CENSUS TABLES, vol. XV. The largest cities, 1888, were Vicksburg, 18,000; Meridian, 12,000; Natchez, 9000. See Gayarré's History of Louisiana; Claiborne's Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State; Hilgard's Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi (Jackson, 1860).

MISSISSIPPI, a co. in n.e. Arkansas, having the Mississippi river for its e. boundary, separating it from the state of Tennessee, the river St. Francis and lake St. Francis for its s.w., and the state line of Missouri for its n. boundary; 810 sq.m.; pop. 1880, 7332— 7230 of American birth, 2661 colored. It is drained by Little river, the Obion, and several lakes of considerable size, the largest being Big lake. Its surface is generally level, but diversified by cypress swamps, bayous, canebrakes, and thick forests. Its soil wherever tillable is fertile and adapted to the production of cotton and corn, stock-raising being carried on to a limited extent. Co. seat, Osceola.

MISSISSIPPI, a co. in s.e. Missouri, having the Mississippi river for its e. and n. boundary, separating it from Kentucky; 370 sq.m.; pop. 1880, 9270-9020 of American birth, 2141 colored. Its surface is generally level, diversified by sloughs and low swampy sections covered with a thick growth of cypress trees, and having small lakes, and James and Cypress bayous in the s. section. The soil under cultivation produces wheat, oats, Indian corn; pork is among the staple products, and horses, cattle, sheep, and swine are raised. It is intersected by the Cairo and the Belmont divisions of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern railroad, and St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas railroad, and it contains in the s.e. section the town of Belmont, the first battle-field on which gen. Grant had chief command. Co. seat, Charleston.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER (Indian, Miche Sepe, Great river, literally, Father of Waters), a river of the United States of America, the principal river of North America, and, including its chief branch, the Missouri, the longest in the world, rises in the highlands of Minnesota, in a cluster of small lakes, and near the sources of the Red river of the north, and the rivers which flow into lake Superior, in lat. 47° 10' n., long. 94° 54' west. Its sources are 1680 ft. above the gulf of Mexico, into which it enters. Its general course is southerly, with numerous windings, giving it a length of 2,986 m. to its mouths, in lat. 29° n., long. 90° w., from which, to the source of the Missouri, is 4,200 miles. The Mississippi and its branches drain an area of 1,226,600 sq. miles. It is navigable to the Falls of St. Anthony, 2,200 m., and by smaller boats above the falls; or by the Missouri, 3,096 m., and has 1500 navigable branches, the chief of which are the Red river, 340 m. from its mouth; the Yazoo, 534 m.; the Arkansas, 700 m.; the Ohio, 1053 m.; the Missouri, 1253 miles. The Mississippi river forms a portion of the boundaries of ten states, having the southern part of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and most of Louisiana on the w. bank; and Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi on the east. The chief towns situated on its banks are New Orleans, Natchez, Vicksburg, Memphis, St. Louis, Quincy, Keokuk, Galena, St. Paul. The upper Mississippi, above the junction of the Missouri, flows through a picturesque and beautiful country. The great lower valley is 500 m. long, and from 30 to 50 wide. The delta, through which flow its numerous bayous, is 150 m. wide. The alluvial plain through which the river winds has an area of 31,200 sq.m., and the delta 14,000 sq.m., all of which, except a few bluffs, is protected by levees, or embankments, from frequent inundations. The descent of the plain is 320 ft., or 8 in. per mile. The river at high water is higher than the plain, and the banks higher than the swamps of the interior. The great floods rise 40 ft. above low water at the head of the plain, and 20 ft. at New Orleans, and for the whole distance the river averages 3.000 ft. wide, and is from 75 to 120 deep. There is no apparent increase from the largest branches, and it is estimated that 40 per cent of the floods are lost in the great marshes. In '82, 75,000 persons were rendered destitute by a flood. MISSISSIPPI RIVER (ante). The sources of this great river are in lakes Itasca, Travers or Pemidgi, Cass, Winnebigoshish, Fishing, Leech, and Mud, lying among hills of drift and bowlders, in the midst of pine forests and marshes. From lake Itasca to Travers the stream is about 12 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep. It issues from the latter 120 ft. wide to Cass lake, which it leaves with a width of 172 ft., contracting and deepening below as it flows through marshes till it comes to a junction with Leech river, where it has rapids of 20 ft., called the falls of Pecagama, 270 m. from the source. To this point small steamers navigate. The total descent to this point is 324 feet. Thence to the mouth of Pine river, about 200 m., the river falls 165 ft.; thence to Crow-wing river 47 m., one ft. per mile. The river is narrow through this distance and winds through oak and maple forests, marshes, and sandy hills, where the natural formation of rock is overlaid with the gravel and bowlders of the drift period. Below, the river passes through a prairie country down to Elk river, and is stained slightly with the brownish color given by piney and marshy vegetation; 133 m. below the Crow-wing are the Sauk rapids one m. long, where the first regular formation of rock is seen on its banks. This is of the Potsdam sandstone, which extends from that point down to Dubuque and Rock Island. The falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis are only 18 ft., with a breadth of 1200. Up to this point the river is navigable for commercial purposes, widening below from what is called Jake Pepin, studded with many islands. From above the falls of St. Anthony to the junction with the Missouri, the river flows through a valley of great beauty and uniform

Mississippi.

fertility. Cliffs and rocky bluffs, from 200 to 300 ft. high, give a picturesque character to that part of the valley below Rock Island, where its strikes the carboniferous strata, the geological formation of the valley, to about 100 m. below the Missouri. At Rock Island, 350 m. below St. Anthony, there is a fall of 22 ft., and the Des Moines rapids, 475 m. below St. Anthony's, have a fall of 24 ft. The government has constructed ship canals around these rapids, so that the navigation of the upper Mississippi is uninterrupted below the falls of St. Anthony. The junction of the Missouri is like the marriage of a rough impetuous uncouth man with a refined and graceful woman. The surging, muddy, eddying waters of the greater stream, the Missouri, for a long distance flow side by side with the clear waters of the Mississippi, joining but not blending, till thrown together by many a crook and turn and eddy between the bluffs of the great valley. Before the Ohio river joins, the union is complete; but the waters remain turbid to their junction with the sea, and, where joined by the currents of the Arkansas and Red rivers, take a more reddish color. Three m. above cape Girardeau and about 30 m. above the mouth of the Ohio, the river begins to have a surface above much of the adjacent land; and for 1300 m. to the sea it flows over a vast alluvial deposit of its own creation, below the surface of which its tortuous bed is deeply cut, while the top of its current is higher than the land.

The mean annual velocity of the current below the junction of the Missouri is 3.39 ft. per second-about 2 m. an hour. The average annual rain-fall in its basin is estimated at 30.4 in.; and the yearly discharge of water into the gulf of Mexico at 145 cubic miles. The depth of the channel below the mouth of the Ohio is from 75 to upward of 100 feet. The variation from lowest to highest water at Natchez, Vicksburg, and Cairo was formerly 52 ft., but is supposed to have been reduced to 46 ft. by new channels and levees. The sediment contained in the water below the Missouri is .0035 of its volume. The area of the delta of the river is estimated at 38,600 sq. miles. The entire valley of the river is margined by deltas, and considerable parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas are all delta. The bottom-lands above cape Girardeau, which are occasionally overflowed, but which are clearly above the level of the river at ordinary stages, are to be distinguished from those large tracts adjoining the lower part which lie below the surface of the river at all seasons. The former are almost continuous on one side of the river or the other, and generally on both sides, from the falls of St. Anthony to three m. below cape Girardeau, where the surface is so low as to be subject to overflow in all seasons, save where defended by levees. These bottom-lands, both high and low, are of the highest order of fertility; those farthest north being used for corn (maize) principally, and for tobacco and pasturage. Some of the largest have been reclaimed from liability to overflow by dikes across the water-channels by which they were inundated. Sny island in Pike co., Illinois, so reclaimed, is 40 m. in length. The American bottom extends from the mouth of the Missouri 90 m. down the river, with an average breadth of 6 miles. Below cape Girardeau (about 30 m. above the mouth of the Ohio), on the w. side, the whole country down to the gulf is mostly delta for an average width of 50 m.; and in high floods the river formerly overflowed nearly all the surface between the mouth of the Ohio and the St. Francis rivers in s.e. Mi souri and eastern Arkansas, filling the lakes and lagoons of that region, and then flowing by numberless channels to the White river and Arkansas valleys, the bayou Macon, Washita, Red and Atchafalaya rivers into the gulf. This region is made safe from floods and habitable only by levees. The Louisiana delta has been for a hundred years to a considerable extent reclaimed by levees. The great delta on the east side, embracing the whole arca between the Mississippi and the Yazoo, about 60 m. in width, has been partially protected for about 50 years, while the protection of the upper portion above Memphis is a more recent undertaking.

The first attempt to guard the lower part of the valley against the river floods was in 1717, when the French governor, De la Tour, ordered embankments for the protection of New Orleans. In 1728 the French planters of Louisiana were protecting each his own water-front, and soon after combined for joint work by neighborhoods and parishes. In 1828 the state of Louisiana began to take rigorous action for the more complete protection of its delta lands. In 1836 and 1838 several of the great side channels by which 'inundations had come were closed at the expense of the counties, and the question of the closing of all the overflow channels, so as to confine the stream to one bed in all stages of water, was the subject of much excited difference of opinion. The closure party prevailed, and one by one the side outlets of the Mississippi were cut off by levees, so that by 1844 every old river lake inlet for 600 m. up the w. bank had been effectually closed. The results were even more satisfactory than had been expected, so that the levee system was entered upon with increased spirit by the states bordering the river, and the aid of the general government was invoked to unify the work. Congress, in 1850, ordered thorough topographical and hydrographic surveys of the whole Mississippi delta, under the direction of capt. A. A. Humphreys and lieut. H. L. Abbott, who began work immediately; but the report was not submitted until Aug., 1861. While the U. S. government were thus obtaining complete data for the completion of the whole work, not only with reference to the reclamation of the vast and fertile deltas of the river, but with reference to the thorough improvement of its navigation from the gulf to its upper waters, the states most interested in the levees continued work upon them till

Mississippi.

checked by the operations of the rebellion in 1862-64. By the report of Humphreys and Abbott, in 1861, it appears that substantial levees had been constructed on the e. side up to the n. line of the state of Mississippi, including one of great magnitude across the Yazoo pass-the largest of all the outlets closed; and that above on the e. side none of great magnitude were required. On the w. side the levees had been completed to the mouth of the Arkansas, and were partially completed, including the line 25 m. long opening into the St. Francis valley.

This was the condition of the lower Mississippi at the beginning of the rebellion. Louisiana alone had expended up to that time $18,000,000 on the levees of the main river; $5,000,000 more on its great side outlets, the Atchafalaya, Plaquemine, and La Fourche; and $1,000,000 on the shore of the Red river. The state of Arkansas had spent $1,000,000; Mississippi, on her water-front of 444 m., $14,500,000; and the state of Missouri, on her front of 140 m., $1,640,000. The total expenditure by individuals, parishes, and states up to that time, on about 2,000 m. of the river shore, is estimated by C. G. Fershey, of New Orleans, at upwards of $41,000,000, without counting the cost of its maintenance. The report of Humphreys and Abbott, in 1861, recommended confining the river to a single channel and making the levees higher at all points, and relatively as follows: at the mouth of the Ohio, 3 ft. above the highest flood ever known (which was then that of 1858); 7 ft. above from Osceola to Helena; 10 ft. above from Helena to island No. 71; thence down to Napoleon 8 ft.; thence to Lake Providence to be increased to 11 ft.; thence to the mouth of the Yazoo and Red River Landing to be reduced to about 6 ft.; and below to be reduced gradually to 3 ft.; and they estimated the cost of carrying out this recommendation at $17,000,000. The tendency of all streams to build up the level of their bottoms by bars formed at their mouths was met by a recommendation to construct a jetty system at the main mouth of the Mississippi, by which its depth should be increased and maintained.

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The subject of levee construction was again taken up by the U. S. government by an act of June 22, 1874, authorizing president Grant to appoint a board of commissioners to make a full report on the best system for the permanent reclamation of the delta basin of the Mississippi. Maj.gen. G. K. Warren and gen. Humphreys were put at the head of the commission, and reported, Jan. 22, 1875, substantially the recommendation of the preceding report, carried further up the great tributaries of the lower Mississippi; that the general government should make and enforce the laws necessary to execute and protect the work; and that the work should be divided into six natural drainage districts, viz. 1. The St. Francis bottom-lands, comprising the w. bank of the river from Cape Girardeau to Helena; 2. the White river bottom-lands, lying between Helena and the mouth of the Arkansas; 3. the Tensas bottom-lands, extending from the Arkansas to the Red river; 4. the Yazoo bottom-lands, lying between the bluffs below Memphis and Vicksburg on the e. bank; 5. Louisiana below Red river on the w. bank; and 6. Louisiana below Baton Rouge on the e. bank. In each of these districts the commission recommended the appointment of a single controlling engineer, with full power in his district, subject to the control of a board composed of the chiefs of each department. The cost of the entire work recommended by this commission by districts was as follows: ESTIMATES FOR PERMANENT SYSTEM OF LEVEES.

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The annual cost of maintenance is estimated at $2,000,000. The length of levees estimated on is 1775 miles.

The commissioners state the amount of land reclaimed and to be reclaimed by this system "at least 2,500,000 acres of sugar land, 7,000,000 acres of the best cotton land in the world, and not less than 1,000,000 acres of corn land of unsurpassed and inexhaustible fertility." Other authorities place the area that will be reclaimed as high as 23,000,000 acres of good land. This probably includes the swamps that may be subsequently reclaimed.

The three main mouths or passes of the river to the gulf diverge where the river has treble its mean width, that is about 7,500 ft., with a mean depth of about 26 feet. It is through the South pass that the recent great work of the government under capt. Eades has been done to deepen and confirm the main channel, and prevent the rise in the level of the bottom of the river. The outer edge of the bar formed at the mouth of the South pass since 1838 was found to have pushed into the gulf about 300 ft. a year. The depth of the gulf at the foot of the slope formed by the deposits of the river is from 300 to 500 ft., the course of the main or South pass being direct towards its deeper waters.

The report from which these facts are drawn is published under the title of the

Mississippi.

Report upon the Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River, by Capt. A. A. Humphreys and Lieut. H. L. Abbott; Philadelphia, quarto, 1861.

The expenditures of the general government on the Mississippi to June 30, '84, have been as follows:

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The following table gives the relative expenditures in several portions of the river since June 1, 1875:

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Total expenditures for eight years ending June 30, 1884, $17,289,308. An act was passed by congress June 28, 1879, appointing the Mississippi river commission to complete surveys of the river, to prepare plans for deepening the channel protecting the banks and providing against floods, and to submit plans and estimates for work that could be done immediately and be a part of the general plan of improvements adopted. To June 30, '84, congress had appropriated $775,000 for the expenses of the commission and $6,923,000 for the work of improvement.

The deltas of the lower Mississippi are everywhere threaded with interlacing bayous and navigable channels, placing every cultivable acre of their lands near to steamboat navigation, one-tenth of the land being estimated as taken up by such water surfaces or channels. Below lat. 31° 30' the sugar-cane is grown on the delta only. Cotton is grown nearly the entire length of it, but most advantageously north of lat. 31°. Corn and sweet potatoes are grown in every part of its whole area, and in the northern parts potatoes and the cereals do well.

The timber growing in the delta region of the Mississippi is mostly sycamore, cypress, and oak the former margining the streams, the cypress occupying the swamps, and the oaks the lands not liable to frequent inundation, the live oak being principally found within a few hundred miles of the gulf.

The climate of the Mississippi valley ranges from semi arctic to semi-tropical. At the falls of St. Anthony, and above, spirit thermometers must be employed to register the extreme low temperature in winter, which often touches 40° Fahr., and yet the extreme of summer heat is but a few degrees less at St. Paul than at New Orleans, 97° to 104°. The range between the extremes is about 65° more at the source than at the mouth of the river. The annual mean temperature at New Orleans is 69°; at Cairo, 45°.

For the history of the discovery and first settlements of the Mississippi, see De Soro; MARQUETTE; LA SALLE; IBERVILLE; New ORLEANS; ST. LOUIS; ST. PAUL, etc. For commerce of the Mississippi, see NEW ORLEANS; MEMPHIS; and ST. LOUIS. FOR improvements at the mouth, see JETTY.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER, IMPROVEMENTS AT THE MOUTH OF. See JETTY.

MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. The gigantic commercial scheme commonly known by this name was projected in France by the celebrated John Law (q.v.) of Lauriston, in 1717, and collapsed in 1720. Its primary object was to develop the resources of the province of Louisiana and the country bordering on the Mississippi, a tract at that time believed to abound in the precious metals. The company was incorporated in Aug., 1717, under the designation of the company of the west, and started with a capital of 200,000 shares, of 500 livres each. They obtained the exclusive privilege of trading to the Mississippi, farming the taxes, and coining money. The prospectus was so inviting that shares were eagerly bought; and when, in 1719, the company obtained the monopoly of trading to the East Indies, China, the South seas, and all the possessions of the French East India company, the brilliant vision opened up to the public gaze was irresistible. The Company of the Indies, as it was now called, created 50,000 additional shares, but a rage for speculation had seized all classes, and there were at least 300,000 applicants for the new shares, which consequently rose to an enormous premium. Law, as director-general,

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