Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1837-11-23

ot trees. 20 feet below the level Of the adj
jaccnt country. The constant accrction of
tho lake shore was likewise mentioned
The extension of the island of n. Orleans
on It's eastern side, has reached some hun
drcds of yards, in advance of the old sta
tons Of the Lake vessels.
On this imperfect presentation of the
subject, the Doctor enters very much ut
large into the genealogical formation Of our
lower countryside netherlands of the Mis-
slssippi valley His Wow is taken subsc-
q'ent to that period when according to dis
'ihsuishcd geologists, the loriicst mountain
peaks OF our country, IN common with
those of tho planet generally were su5mcr-
gcd by the ocean.
That this was the ancient condition OF
our globe, is satisfactorily established, by
The presence on tho ~lofticst mountains, all
over the world, of marine shell, whose tex
turc is too delicate to have admitted any
violent agency i'll cfTccting their DISPOSE
items.
Long subsequent 10 this remote epoch,
III tho revolutions Of our globe, the gulf of
Mexico must according to the hypothesis Of
DR.. Powell, have assembled high up the pre-
sent bed of the Mississippi. In all proba-
!bi'ity, It washed the sand bluffs ut Natci;cz
the sand stone rock at tho town of Grand
Gulf, and the bluffs a, Vicksbnrg, il it did
moi reach still higher. The reason for these
apparently rash conclusions are presented
III these facts. Cypress stumps arc often
found twenty and fifty feet below the pres
cnt level of the country in Arkansas; Just
rs they arc found forty fec, below the level
of the Attakapas district. Forty and fifty
feet of earth have therefore been deposited
upon the ancient surface of the country.
In confirmation of this fact. the :nnccr-
ahccS OF tue present BANKS, sacw su=rcs-
sive growth and depositc of timber with
other alluvial matters, marked by Success
I've layers. Sometimes the depositc re-
mains of timbcr are perpendicular, at Other
times they arc horizontal. Are not these
the very steps add stages Of the geological
processes, that arc going on ut the prcscn,
day, whenever the lower country is i'm a
state of accrction! 1t then seems untcni-
able that the bed of the river must have
hce'i owcr than al present, (supposirg the
floods to have been nearly the same as
now i'll order to- enable it TO make those
dcpositcs on former growtlIs. Is not the
SAME process, periodically carried on,
throughout the lowlands on the Mississippi;
and lis tributaries? Hence the increasing
capacities for cultivation of extensive sec
tons Of the valley country, whicl-wcrc
formerly unsusceptible of it. TEis-is the
testimony of our old inhabitants within the
last forty years. At tho same time the bed
of the river has raised itself with the new
y formed country, by partakinG Of The gen
eral depositcs.
Hence the Mississippi is so frequently
said by superficial observers, to run upon
a ridge. because its margin receiving the
last dcposites oflhc retiring waters charged
with ~illuvial matters, arc ALWAYS higher
than Tic rcmolcr parts of the bank. The
concavitv ofrhc bed of the stream is, how
ever, unaffected by this circumstance, and
obviously has no,llin. To do with the for
NATION Of TIC marginal banks SO and GO fee,
above the stage of low water.
-h"~" way" present themselves, the Doc
tor thinks, in which the retirement, of the
waters Of the Gulf of Alcxico nav have
dccpcnc, TO make room for its more con-
tined waters, or the WATERS may have di.
minislcd. The great diversion OF the an
cicn, ocean beds tend to confirm the hitter
supposi'ion.
There is another mode of accounting for
the alluvlal formation ofthe Mississippi val
Icy. by surprising the waters of the present
Gulfot Mexico To have been damned up by
Il mountain chain from the Peninsula of
l%ucalan, through the Island Of Cuba, TO the
Florida shore. The opinion is maintained
very deliberately and with considerable abil-
ily by DIR. james w. Moncl,c, in an ESSAY
published in the Christian Herald of lGlh
April, 1886. The ~samoorinion is express
sed by Charles Thompson us Il vision oiian-
cy, in the appendix TO Jcilcrson's rolcs on
Virginia, Boston edition, page 232. Not
that the later view has any prcIcnsion to the
minute confirmation from Topography.
wllicli is so lahoriously adduccd by DR.. NIos
ncue. With ThompQn, the opinion was
conjicctural neutrality-suspicious. any minute
knowledge OF the Mississippi valley; with
Mcnc'lc, it isa deduction from n par,icular