To La Salle belongs the honor of tracing the true course of the Mississippi river. He charted it with a faithfulness and accuracy that would do credit to the surveys of the present day. He seemed to have noted all the important feeders and tributaries, correctly locating their points of confluence. He did not cease his work until he reached the Gulf of Mexico.[3] So not only was La Salle the most indefatigable explorer of this region, but he also earned the credit of having made the most important discovery. [Footnote 3: From the best information I can gather I am unable to decide to my own satisfaction whether or not La Salle discovered the Red River. It is not improbable that he never saw this stream, for it is more than likely that at that time, Red River poured its waters directly into the Gulf of Mexico, through Atchafalaya and Cocoudrie Bayous. That these were formerly a part of the channel of Red River, there can be no doubt. The sluggish swale that now leads from the river to the Gulf is a silted channel that was formerly large enough to carry the whole volume of Red River. Such changes in the channel of a river, when the latter flows through "made" soil, are by no means infrequent. It is only a few years since the Hoang River, "the sorrow of Han," broke through its restraining banks, and poured its flood into the Gulf of Pe-chee-lee, 350 miles distant from its former mouth.] With La Salle's exploration the future importance of the Mississippi began; and though the railway has of late years largely supplanted it as a commercial highway, yet, with the possible exception of the Ganges, no other river in the world transports yearly a greater tonnage of merchandise. The early traders were content to carry their supplies back and forth in canoes. As settlement and business increased, the canoe gave place to the raft, and the raft yielded to the flatboat. In the course of time, steam was applied to the propulsion of boats, and the flatboat yielded to the inevitable: the palatial steamboat was supreme. But the days of the steamboat were numbered when the civil war cast its blight over the land; and when the years of strife were over, so also was the river traffic which had created the floating palaces of the Mississippi. There were several things that operated to prevent the reorganization of the fleet of steamboats which for size, beauty and capacity were found in no other part of the world. Many of these boats had been destroyed, and the companies that owned them were financially ruined. Most of those remaining were purchased or confiscated for military purposes, and rebuilt either as transports or as gunboats. A period of unparalleled railway construction began at the close of the war, and most of the traffic was turned to the railway. Finally, it was discovered that a puffy, wheezy tug, with its train of barges, costing but a few thousand dollars, and equipped with half a score of men, could, at a