The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1859-05-12

The difference Of level between hirh and
low water mark 1T Oairo is City feet !; GO New
Orleans the difference il but twelve fect.-
The width and depth Of the river from Cairo
and Memphis to New Orleans 10 not materi.
ally increased, yet immense additions are
made TO the quantity Of water in the channel
by large streams from both the eastern and
western sides Of the Mississippi. The ques-
ton naturally arises, What becomes of this
vast added volume OF water? Ii certainly
never reaches New Orleans, and a. certainly
does not evaporate; and, Of course, II is not
confined to the channel Of the river, for it
would rise far above the entire region south
of US.
If we'll is sunk anywhere in tho Arkansas
bottom, water Ia found - soon % the water
level Of the Mississippi il reached. Whom
the Mississippi goes down, the water sinks
accordingly in the well. The owner Of saw
mill, some twenty miles from the Mississippi,
in Arkansas, dug we'll to supply the boilers
of his engine, during the late food. When
the waters recsded, his we'll went down till
his hose would no longer reach the water,
and, finally, his we'll was dry. He dug .
ditch to an adjacent lake to let water into his
we'll the lake was drained, and the we'll was
dry again-having literally drank ton acres
Of water in less than week. The inference
10, that the whole valley Of tho Mississippi,
from its banks to the highlands on either side,
rests on porus substratum which absorbs
the redundant waters, and thus prevents that
degree Of accumulation which would long
since have swept New Orleans into the Gulf
but for this provision OF nature, to which
alone her safety is attributable.
In fact, IL the alluvial bottoms Of the Mis-
siesippi we're like the shores.of the Ohio, the
vast plain from Cairo to New Orleans would
to day be part and parcel OF the Gulf Of Mex
loo, and this whole valley vast Trash water
arm Of the ses. Were the geological charac-
ter Of the valley different, the construction
of levees, combining the water OF the Missis-
sippi to its channel, would cause the rise in
the river to become 80 great at the South,
that there no sufficient levee could be built.
The current would be stronger and the accu-
mutation Of water greater as the levees are
extended north Of u.
! Such results were reasonably enough an
ticipated but the water, instead OF breaking
the levees, permeates the porous soil, and
the overflow is really beneath the surface oil
the swamps. Such, it seems to US, are tn,
wise provisions Of natural laws for tho safety
and ultimate reclamation OF the rich country
south Of us.
We believe that the levee system will b,
successful, and that the object OF it's adop
ton will be attained. The porosity Of th,
material used in making them, has cause,
most if not oil of the crevasses. Men ma,
deem it a superhuman task to wall in tn
Mississippi from Cairo to New Orleans, Blu
our levees are the work OF pigmies whel
contrasted with the dykes of Holland. III
foodtide Of the Mississippi is but ripple OIL
the surface Of CLASSY pool, compared witt
the ocean pillows that dash against the urti
foial shores Of Holland. The country to b
reclaimed by our levees-all Of which vii
not for ffty years cost the people as mucl
as those Of the Dutch when originally bull
would make one hundred such kingdom
as that over which Bonaparte once wielde,
the sceptre-[M Memphis Avalanche.