Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1843-06-29
MISSISSIPpIRIVER

II is question frequently asked and never satisfactorily
answered, what goes with the waer" Ii is known thai
the difference between high and low mark high up
as the mouth OF White rver about hrsx feet and the
current at high water mark miles the
hour; and opposite ~ Orleans the difference between high
and low water is only twelve feet, and the little
yer three miles TO the hour the oidfh and depth of the
yer being the from which calculate that
times much water passes by the mouth of White
by n. Orleans What goes with the eXcessl The only
solution have heard offered Is that escapes by the bayous
Plaquemme, Lafourche, and lberve. And when cal.
cuate the width, depth and o those bayous they
fall vastly short of ahordng sufficient escapemenL The
true explanation can think be given At loo sdfer
throughout that whole a sand structure
posed UNDERTAKING the bank, that auvia
which our plantations stratum Of depose made by
the rver ADORE ITS lou tnatsr mark which, opposite the
mouth OF White river, is thirty feet thick, and you de
scend the ryer dminshes in thickness the difference
between high aud low dninshes, and nearly cor
responds TO H. And wherever the bottom is exposed it
SHOWS throughout the whole extent that the bottom pure
coarse sand, showing many places the shinge.
Through the supenmposed aluvia structure, mixed with
HHe sand the water percoaies with such facility and rapid
fg that the water well dug a considerable distance
from the river bank and falls with the rise and fall in
the veT varying nch and through the sand
and shHgie OF the bottom passes as rapidly through
common sere BY the accurate surveys Of several engin-
GERS it Is ascerained that the fall OF the Mississippi
fcur inches To the mile. The distance from Nachez New
Orleans, OF three hundred miles, will give twelve hundred
inches or one hundred feet The depth Of the is be-
low pity eet at high water The river debouches into the
ocean from promonlory itself has made. The surface of
The ocean Is by measurement Deo he batom of the
auuvv 49, tcss corresponding WIN
mark below New Orleans; therefore pouring
hrqneh IFS bottom into the ocean, the suponmposed
weight giving lateral pressure hurry the suberranean cur
rent. II the reader has stood upon Misspp sand
bar, IN hard rain, poured from bucket
the sand bay he has that neither be done su
cient quantity 10 produce any accumulation of
surface.
The rver therefore, from the time it comes below the
limestone s.sias Of Missouri and Kentucky wasting itself
hroughits bottom. If the Mississippi yer had TO pur-
rock and mpervious clay banks the high water mark
New Orleans would reach one hundred feet present
limit; but running sand walled in by depOse
made OF sand, ANCIENT dluyia detrus and Vegetable mould
more water reaches the than the the
amount that can permeale the surrounding structure and
pass OIL IN the process of percOaton Transportation in
subteuunean descent the ocean The river without any
restraint from rock clay in the bottom bank left free
TO the government Of otheraw than the law of hydrosa.
ties The "washing" wasting Of the banks be
prevented, though the "cayng sdng of large portions
at one lime may be easily guarded against. There
ny proofs OF the validity Of the foregoing theory derived from
other rivers.
The Arkansas, Of that State receives several large
tributaries and ~ itself above their junction large the
congrcgated rivers after then junction oifhin the State
Within the State II has no tributaries before reach
ing the Mississippi uveT distance Of hundred miles,
which lies within the sand district consequence rise
OF fifteen or twenty feet tine of the
main ryer without producing any rise the mouth unless
the supply IS maintained Tor considerable time And the
Tar famed Niger ycr Of Africa, whose mouth has
been found may be lost and wasted the great sand
OF iAe desert Of Sahara, and It's subeuanean flood may
be again collected The surface Of subenanean strata Of
rock and projected the eaah and thus sustain the opn
ION OF fny that the Niger western and main tributary
Of the Nile Yieksburg Wing.