The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-07-24
FIFTEEN CENTS "A WEEK


AnAuea Rise of the Mlsson1i Hfvors
y This sccurence always tskss place somssime in
The month ef Jane-prevsiling gsaeRally from the
10Th 70 the 20th-and is produced BY tho melting
Of snow in the Rocky Mountain ssnge, and the &C.
ccnpsnying rains the head watsrs Of the river.
The altitude Of the rise ITSELF may be computed
at some 10 or IL feet; and when il is augmented
by heavy rams along down the Missouri and its
ibu,aries, it threatens inuadation of the alluvis
banks The foods always more or less gil the
sloughs at full tide but the first settlers of the
boensiick country, who moved late the rivsf bot
toms, were impressed with the belief that The high
waters had nsvera bean ov6r the bottoms. They.
were led to this opinion BY noticing that old logs,
where The Indiana had eccasionnliy fslled trees, had
mover been disturbed that there were no surface
wsshings; and particularly that the mounds efths
Aboriginal inhabitants were sometimes met with
in the bottoms, - thoagh the Indians were unsc-
quainted with overnows, and that there had been
none to disturb their works. 4 ss,Fss i
But in the year 1923 the waters came up much
higher than usual, covering the corn fields, which
had been made in the extfeWely. low lands--as,
Tor instance, the Lake in the Forks Of the Chasi-
ten. which was once cultiuted. Three years q.
assva.ds .ssia, ia 1920, came higher rise BY
sou1e two fest, seriously slarming the inhabitants
90 that they moved in boats themselves and their
stock out Of the bottoms. Many Of the growing
crops were ruined.
But the alarm subsided in after years until men
began to think that the river channel had deepened,
and that there would never sgsin BE- an overflow
Population increased rapidly in the river bottoms
~ they were exceedingly fertile and afforded many
eonveniences. The inhabitants oil felt secure. In
l6l3, however, the waters came up unusually high
and might have served q warning. Still We are
not aware that any body felt alarmed. But in the
year 1644-sbout the middle of May, or sooner
j. commenced raining I'll along the Missouri val
Icy, literally like the deluge Of Noah, forty days
aud forty nights, pouring down foods Of water.
The rivulsts became rivers, and the rivers ran in
torrents and superadded 70 oil, came the mountain
rise, till at its height the 18th or 20th June, the
Missouri river was some six feet higher than in
1926 A great deal Of stock was drowned, the
crops generally destroyed, fences carried oGsaand
the river from bluff to bluff to the width 81 sx
or eight miles, covering the bottoms almost uni
versa:ly. ka
The next year the river was up--but not 30 high,
BY - Or IA feet, and did not run much into the
hsttoms. Since that time until this year uS5l)
there has been no alarm. The present rise has mot
been at this place, within ten feet Of what it was
in 1874, but it has caused serious injury to many
farms, and forced conviction all observers that
what has been may be again, and that there is no
Certainty OF the Missouri ever flowing q channel
deep enough, 70 prevent these ovef6ows. 1t is
true, that every overflow deposites immense guam
titles OF sand the banks and elevates them more
or less every food, thus scooping out the bed of
the river and it is also true that the Missouri is
everrnore carrying its sands into the Mississippi,
and filing up the Gulf Of Mexico. But the sand
seems to accumulate without diminution from
the storehouses of the Rocky Mountains, with
every annual rise. tBrunswicker.-