Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-01-22
Stlett 8eaolng.
THE MIS-: ISsIPPI RIVER.

! THE NILS .lSSlRRl Rlp Eh.
The Mississippi river is the greatest stream
in the world The total length is 1900
miles. On looking over a volume recently
issued, entitled "Lloyd's Steamboats, and
Railroad Directory" we find the following
instructive article on the waste of the waters
of the Mississippi. 1t says:
No experience will enable person to an
ticipate, with any degree of certainty, the
elevation of the food in any given year. In
some seasons, the waters do not rise above
their channels; in others the entire lower
valley of the Mississippi is submerged. EN-
bankmcnts called lcvees have been raised
from five to ten feet high, on both sides Of
the stream, extending many miles above and
below New Orleans. by this means the
river is restrained within its proper limits,
except at the greatest frcshets, when the wa
tels sometimes break over everything, caus-
ing great distinctions to property: and some
times loss of life. The average height OF
the food from the Delta to the junction Of
| lue -nlssouIl ID duONC SlAtceu icC'. h0 thS
mouth of the latter river it is twenty-five
feet Below the entrance Of the Ohio river
the rise is often fifty. feet.
At Natchez, it seldom exceeds thirty feet;
and at New Orleans about twelve feet. What
goes with the water. 1t is known that the
difference between high and low water mark,
| ,rh ic uhc ~ u
six feet, and the current at high water mark
runs nearly seven miles per hour, and oppo,
site to New Orleans the difference between
high and low water mark is only twelve feet,
and the current little over three miles to
the hour The width and depth of the river
being the same, from which We calculate
that nearly six times as much water passes
the mouth of the White river as by New Or
leans. What goes with the excess The
only solution cv,r offered, is that it escapes
by the bayous "Plaquemine," "Lafourche, -
and s1bcrvillc," but when we calculate the
width, depth and current of these bayous,
they fall vastly short of ah'ording sufficient
cscapement The true explanation can, We
think, be given.
At low water, throughout the whole cx-
tent, We see land structure exposed, under
lying the bank, or that the alluvial structure
on which the plantations are, is structure
of deposit made by the river above its low
water mark, which, opposite to the mouth Of
White river, is thirty feet thick. As you
descend, the river dimnishes in volume as
the difference between high and low water
mark diminishes and nearly corresponds to
it, and wherever the bottom is exposed, it
shows throughout the whole extent, that the
bottom is pare course sand; exhibiting at
many places the occan shingl", through the
superimposed allurial structure mixed with
fue sand. The water percolates with such
facility and rapidity that the water in well
dug at considerable distance from the river
bank, rises and falls with the rise and fall of
the river, not varying an inch, and through
the coarse sand and shingles of the bottom,
it passes as rapidly as through a common
sieve.
BY the accurate surveys Of several scien-
tifc engineers, it is ascertained that the fall
Of the Mississippi river is four inches to the
mile The distance from Matches to New
Orleans of three hundred miles will give
twelve hundred inches or one hundred feet.
The depth of the river is less than fifty feet
at high water mark The river debouchcs
into the ocean, from promontory made by
itself The surface of the ocean, by meas
uremcnt below the bottom of the river, above
New Orleans, corresponds with the low water
mark below New-Orleans, therefore the Mis-.
sissippi river is pouring through its own bot
tom into the ocean, the superimposed weight
giving literal pressure to hurry the subtcrra-
mean current If the reader has ever stood
upon Mississippi sand-bar, in a hard rain,
OF seen Water poured from a bucket on the
sand bar, he has seen that neither can be
done in sufficient quantity to produce any
current or accumulation on the surface The
river is, therefore, from the time it comes
| below the limestone stratus of Missouri and
Kentucky, wasting itself through its own
bottom ...-
If the Mississippi river had to pursue its
course, like the Ohio, over rocky strata wall,
ed in by rock aud impervious clay banks the
high water mark at New Orleans would reach
one hundred feet above its present limits
but running over coarse sand, walled in by
deposit made of sand, ancient deluvial Diet,
ritous and vegetable mound, no more water
reaches the ocean than the excess over the
amount that permeates the surrounding