Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1851-06-05
BURLINGTON HAWK-EYE.
DESCRIPTION Of the Flood.

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No one, who has never visited the Western
country, can have correct conception Of the real
appearance assumed by the present astonishing
rise Of waters. The statement that the waters Of
the Upper Mississippi have reached point six
feet higher than was ever known by the present
residents, carries with it the idea that such rise
must greatly increase the velocity of the current
and overwhelm everything in its onward course.
Such an idea presents an amazingly inadequate
impression of the facts.
Up and down this mighty stream there are ex-
tensive bottoms on either side, stretching from
one to ten miles to high bluffs, on whose submits
the table or prairie land commences. These bot
toms, except some of the lowest, form the banks
of the river in its ordinary stages. The soil of
these bottoms is alluvion Of the richest kind, and
holds out strong inducements for farmers to cul-
tivate such land. Many valuable farms are in
consequence opened on these rich bottoms. Cen
orally, the bluffs come boldly to the river and
form its only shore on one side, while on the
other, the bottom land stretches for miles into
the interior. Those who travel up and down the
river are, at the proper season, struck with the
beauty and luxuriance of the vegetation, where
the farms are not hidden, is frequently the case
by thick growth of timber on the river margin
of the bottom.
With this brief description, the reader, who
has never seen the Mississippi, will be prepared
to comprehend the extent and dreadfulness of the
present calamity, when he is told that these bot
toms, with their beautiful farms, are now cover
ed with water to the depth Of from two to eight
feet As rise after rise comes down from the
upper country, the water spreads itself over these
bottoms, its only barrier being the high and beet
ling bluffs, which in many places it has already
reached. This to us is wise ordination of Prov
| idence. In consequence Of vent being given to
the flood from above, by permitting it to spread
over these bottoms in this way, the strength of
the current in the river proper, is not very mate
rally increased. The waters might otherwise
rush madly down with terrific velocity, and, being
confined to narrow limits, do greater damage far,
than by the present order of things.
| The reader can form but feeble conception of
the immense amount of water that it must take
to create this vast longitudinal ocean. Assuming
that all the rivers, with the exception of the Ohio,
are now as high as the Mississippi, there is at this
moment in the valley of the Mississippi and its
tributaries an impromptu sea of fresh water FIVE
thousand miles long, averaging five miles in width
and fifteen feet in depth.
The principal mitigation that exhibits itself
amidst all this distress and destruction, is that it
has come upon us so gradually as to enable the
greatest sufferers to save their lives. The work
of years has been swept away. Hundreds have
been driven from their homes, and are for the
present houseless and obliged to take up their
| ahodes with strangers Rut their lives are snar
ed, and, by sharing in the sympathies and benev-
olence Of those who have not been stripped of
their all, as they have been, there is yet for
gratitude to that Being who causcth the ''waters
| to flows for a wise purpose.