European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.
2013 January-February, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 22 January 2013, page 59