RED RIVER. The southernmost of the large tributaries of the Mississippi. It rises in the northern part of Texas in the fissures of the Llano Estacado. and flows eastward along the northern boundary of Texas until it enters Arkansas, where it turns to the south, and enter ing Louisiana traverses that State in a south easterly direction to its junction with the Mississippi. 341 miles above the month of the latter, and opposite the southwestern corner of the State of (Map: Texas, E 2). Its length is estimated at 1550 miles. For the first 60 miles it flows through a cation with perpen dicular rocky sides 500 to 800 feet high. after which it enters a sandy and arid plain, where it broadens out to a width of nearly 3000 feet, but with a very shallow depth. Farther down it enters the fertile alluvial bottoms, which throughout its middle course are densely wooded. Bete the course becomes very sluggish and meandering, while the river continually shifts its bed by washing away the material from one bank and depositing it on the other,. thus offering serious impediments to navigation. Here also the river shows a remarkable tendency to form snags or rafts of driftwood. Up to 1873 such a raft of tree-trunks and driftwood 32 mile: long extended from a point sonic distance above Shreveport. La. In that year a navigable chan
nel was cut through, and now the river is kept clear by constantly removing the floating timber. In its lower course in Louisiana the Red River sends out numerous bayous, some of which rejoin it, while others penetrate directly to the Gulf of Mexico, parallel with the Mississippi. The chief of the latter is the Atchafalaya (q.v., which has up to the present received a large part of the volume of the main stream, though engi neers are now endeavoring to force the whole of the Red River into the Mississippi by damming up the bayou. (See Mississippi RivEa.) Large sums have been expended by the National Gov ernment in improving the navigation of the Red River. It has a navigable length of about 1250 miles, and its tributaries, chief of which is the afford in addition 2100 miles of navi gable waterways. Steamers drawing four feet can ascend to Shreveport at all seasons except in extreme low water, while at high water they can reach nearly to the Texan boundary. Consult Exploration of the Red Firer of Louisi ana ( Washington, 1 ti 53