The Arkansas banner., 1849-06-19
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 to the alfimpoFtant subeel of recslining the grea
 vsIisy q the Mississippi .ifom Helsba to the Bsrs
 and from ,he Piue Bluffs, on the Arksnsas, to il,
 meath. Y so glorious asehems bs practicable a, my convictions On the subject induce me to believe
 what great, grand and glorious results hang il. completion. This great region, now comparatively udslsss pnd seAay becoming saots sol 5psai tHs lns creased annual inundaions, can, i, is believed, be I'feciafhed; and If 60, what an Eden springs up sEop6d as&ths favpfsd spo, of earth-contsining all tho inexhausibIe elements within itself Of future wssish and greatness Where Is the land win which to compare it1 The lsud of Ophir now lives only In ancient history; the Nile will not compare either In certainty, variety or extent of production The best "diggngs" of the California gold region may be productive. for tive, but expe- rience teaches that they not to be relied on permanent source of wealth-tiIe supplies de- creasing each season, and with rapidity propor- iioned to the incTcased laboT until in very short time the product ceases to pay tie tabor bestowed and the "diggings" have 10 be abandoned. The holds true in regard this glorious region whea once reclaimed; it's prodnctiveness will al- ways keep puce with the increased labor bestowed. project, then, looking to so glorious an end con taining so much of promise in the future, Is most worthy of ouE anxious consideration. know of bat one project more so-the great California high way from Memphis to San Francisco, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific. opening direct com muncatiOn with China, and secn,ing the benefits Of that vast trade, from which distance has here tofore almost entirely excluded us. This, taken in connection with the fact that this great trade, to he carried on between China and Europe must pass this wayosr position giving us the great advantage of being, as it were, factors to bothpresents to contemplation a project uneq ualed in importance. from the vastness the ncacuableness of the benefs 10 De derived, both to our government and people. It is, in truth, the great question of the daythe entire world being interested in it's consummation- whilst the question we propose to investigate may Dc rather considered national; Arkansas, Missis- sippi and Loaisiana being directly, the Western States less so and the northern remotely interested in the result. To those living on the river, in the States above naIDed the freshet which has just passed over us leaves no argument necessary to show It's great importance and the necessity for speedy action. t
 It is nearly the universal notion that general system of L1ying would reclaim the country, by deepening the channel and increasing the current This, too, has been the doctrine of some very high in place. Let us examine this argument. With the diving bell it has been demonstrated that thirty and half feet below the surface of the water there is no current at all, and that tha, depth Is easy to walk up stream as down. Then with what justice il be argued that the channel i'll cut deeper n these freshets, when there Is least hundred and fifty feet depth of water after there no current This fact being incontrovertible, it is not hard for who believes that particles larger than water will sink 10 the bottom 10 come to the conclusion that the bed of the river, instead of cut ting deeper. is actually rising up with each freshet from tho quantity of sand and mud that must settle to the bottom in this still water below. This fact was first impressed on me by trip up the Arkansas river, some two years ago. No difficulty from want of water was spprehended-for were the smallest class Arkansas boat which claimed to run the river at any stage-yet we were constantly grounding, when the river lacked fully foot and d
 
 formed that the river had as yet cut itself out
 and that it would be better boating even when the river should fail foot lower; that the sediment always filled up the channel in freshet. Now, it is hardly likely that the saIe that ruined the bed of the river, these bars ceased 10 operate other portions of the bed of the river. IL may De asked, then, how is it that the relative height of the ha, had tha ss [ ;s only by the deposits on the top of the bank beag equal to that in the bed of the river. Then the whole country, bed of the river, channel and all must yearly become more elevated. Surely, all observation establishes this fact. How else is it that trees found fifty feet below the surface of the earth? How is it, on some points of the river, that We can with perfect distinctness count each freshets strata of deposits, from low water mark 10 the top of the bank, If it be not so7 cave in the bank in this neighborhood clearly illustrates the fact The cave exposed strata of human bones some four feet deep, thirty feet broad, and about eighteen feet below the surface of the earth. Here were also found the remains of camp-fres, large fish bones-in fact, evsrything that could prove it had ever been the top of the earth and from ss being faYorlte spot with human beings, the pre- sumption is that it was what we call rather high poiat. and must have been ihe same height to the bed of the river that the present bank bears to the bed of the river.
 The fact is also exemplifed in the river Pc. It has been levied. perhaps, for two thousand years At first slight embark ments suiced; the bed of the river soon filled rp until it accommodated itself to the top of the levee. The embankments. of course. had to be raised; the, bed in avery few years had adj ssted itself again to the top of the evee and il went until, when Napoleon was there, he found the bed of the river higher than the tops of The taest houses. Justly alarmed for the safety of the people be sent his engineers to examine if there was any remedy To unnatural state of things They pported the country in about the condition of the man who had the wolf-more dangerous to let ge than 10 hold on They have so far been tk..la- l.lI Al Il