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E WISH to draw attention to Wi: greatest internal waterway upon the American continent. It is the Missouri river; upon whose bosom the trade-pioneers of the west-northwest founded the first great fortunes of individuals and com- munities. That enterprise extended from New Orleans to the Canadian possessions of England on the Sask- atchewan, when the fur trade was the road to wealth and the cordelle was blazing the way for the steamboat. That trade, born with the nineteenth century, had its grand center south- ward at St. Louis, whose two prin- cipal up-river bases were Old Fort Pierre Choteau (within rifle-shot of whose site the writer sits penning these lines) and Fort Union at the Yellowstone's mouth. And the interests, present and pros- pective, founded upon that trade fur- nished the main stake in the Amer- ican-British struggle for dominion in the far northwest, the outcome of which settled our national boundary line and saved to the United States the Oregon territory and the Colum- bia river. That contest involved, on its broader lines, at the southern border, the free navigation of the Mississippi and the ultimate acquisi- tion by our government of the vast Louisiana territory--for shrewd Bon- aparte saw that France would lose it to England if force were the arbiter. And when this nation set out to fasten forever 'her grip of possession upon this new domain the thorough- fare over which Lewis and Clarke ex- plored it to the mountains was this great waterway. And when they left behind them her branches on _ the backbone of the Rockies, they were almost in sight of streams, soon to become wide and powerful, that formed the main fork of the Colum- bia. It is but 470 miles on present travel lines from Great Falls, Montana, head of navigation on the Missouri, to Lewiston, Idaho; from which. two points large river craft may ply--one line to the Gulf of Mexico, the other to the Pacific. Now take a map of North America and draw lines thereon from points - *Vice ~-esident for South Dakota, National Rivers and Harbors Congress. Such is the Tribute That One Advo- cate Pays to the Missouri River America's Greatest Waterway By Charles E. Deland* on the Canadian Pacific railroad west of the Red river,--first to the Mis- souri river where it courses nearest to the International boundary line, say in eastern Montana; then from the same points to Duluth, the west end of the Lakes system; and again irom the same points. to St. Paul, head of navigation on the Mississippi. This important traffic fact appears, wiz.s° lhat the rail haul trom. the CHARLES E. DELAND. Charles E. DeLand was farm in Oneida county, N. Y young man he removed to Galesburg, Ill., where he studied law. He located in Pierre, S. D., in 1883, where he has practiced ever since. He is one of the directors of the State MHistorical So- ciety of South, Dakota, and has 'con: tributed many papers bearing upon the history of the state. He was a charter member of the Missouri River Improve- ment Association, founded in Omaha ten years ago. He was similarly con- nected with the work of the Missouri River Navigation Congress, organized at Sioux City four years ago and is still the vice president of that organization. He is the author and publisher of sev- eral books upon law practice. born on a While a Winnipeg basin to the Missouri river is but from one-half to one-fifth as long as it is from the same points to either Duluth or the Twin Cities. And the general course of traffic from that basin to the Missouri, thus illus- trated, is essentially that of the In- dian and fur-trading era of a century ago. The Missouri river, regarded as ex- tending to the Gulf, is 4,220 miles in leneth from its ultimate head. From the head of navigation at Fort Ben- ton, Montana, to its junction with the Mississippi substantially at St. Louis it flows 2,285 miles, and the 1,258 miles thence to the sea makes its navigable length 3,543 miles. It is in fact navigable for substantial river craft a considerable distance above Great Falls. And what of the character of its navigability? Such a question would not be propounded by any one at all familiar with the stream. General (then Captain) Hiram M. Chittenden, Corps of Engineers, U, S: A.,. in his exhaustive work, "History .of the American Fur. Trade of the War West,' who for many years made a study of the engineering and naviga- tion features of the river while at the head of the engineering department of.the Missouri River Commission, Says: Hrom this point. (head - of navigation at Fort Benton) the river descends like an interminable stair- case to the level of the sea, and with so gentle a slope that great boats can ascend it the entire distance.' He ranks it "one of the most remark- able streams upon the globe. Its source is farther from the sea than ian Of any other." Again: "Of all the western rivers the Missouri was by far the most important to the trade." And as further proof,--sub- stantiating the views of the earliest explorers and pioneers of the two great waterways to the effect that the Missouri is the main stream to the Gulf and the Mississippi its tributary, --Chittenden might be further quoted wherein he declares: "The physical characteristics of the Missouri river over the navigable portion of its length are the same as those of the lower Mississippi." What of the drainage of these two great waterways? Say that honors: are even below their junction; the Mississippi thence is 1,024 miles long up to St. Paul, and her watershed is about one-fourth the area of that of the Missouri, whose vast expanse encroaches upon Canada and embraces all territory westward to the Conti- nental Divide of the Rocky moun- tains. Now distances become staggering and trade lines extend to the extremi- ties of the globe, involving commerce