New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-05-14
REPoRToRIAL SKETCHES OF THE GREAT
FLOOD OF 1889.
GAYcsA HoUSE, MExPH,s,

oArosA HoU'r' NJ MssHs" 1,s ;s,o !
Reported expressly for the Crescent
Editors Crescs1t: to-day took tbe ferry and
crossed the river to the little town of Hope6ed stu
ated on the Arkansas side Immediately opposite this
city. Hopefeld Is small settlements and the terminus
of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad it Is very
nearly inundated and in most Of the stseets the "dug
ou is the principal vehicle in The country ad
joining is completely under water and the Mississippi
opposite Memphis may now be said to be fully forty
miles tcide-that is to say, there is not Of dry
land between the Memphis bluffs and the st. Francis
river in Arkansas The st. Francis discharges into
the Mississippi about thirtyfTe miles below here, and
the country lying bet,oee these two streams is wholly
submerged. III estimated that at least 800 900
in this tract converted into d" water lots," Of
which it would be literally low estimate to say that
only 0000 acres good cotton lands, which last
year produced about 25 900 bales Of cotton. The
loss to plantations in this tract in the way Of fences
carried away, buildings damaged, stock lost, etc., is
estimated at s5000 and yet it is but small item in
the long catalogue Of disaster and ruin and loss
which the great food of 1859 should have entered to
its "credt" have heard, within day or two past,
considerable discussion in regard to the probable loss
to the cotton crop Of this year by the overflow, and
the lowest estimate made in my hearing places the
loss at half million of bales, while the very many
intelligent and calculating planters and statistcians
fix it at much higher figure Taking my own OBJ.
servations and the information have thus far been
able to procure as basis Of calculation, think
the loss will be fully great represented by the
above numerals
1t appears to be generally admitted that the num-
Der of of the rich auvial cotton lands of Mssis
sppi and Tennessee submerged this spring, is more
than double Il regard it as quadruple) that Of last
season, and yet fear the corst is still to The
regular annual or spring flood, which is usually ex.
pected between the 18th May and the middle of June
will in all probability, be experienced before the
ter in the lower river shall have opportunity to
abate, and must inevitably produce the most disas-
trous results. However, "croakng' does not consti-
tute part Of my present " mission" To describe
the present havoc, and ascertain the amount of dam
age already sustained is my purpose, and in my next
which will be from point further down the river
you shall have fuller particulars and details.
At this point the river is swelling rapidly, the sur
face being covered with floating drift. Large trees
the wrecks of fences, and occasionally inverted
negro cabin, together with the usual msceilaneou.
and nnmistakable indications of heavy rise above
are dashing past, borne a stormy current at tht
rate of at least eight nine miles per hour. The
latest dates from the Ohio and st. Louis, report no
only the former and upper Mississippi rising, bu
announce all the upper tributaries booming, and con
tributing fearfully to swell the mighty flood already
existing.
TrRIOryIr0us