The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1859-05-26
Wonders of the Mississippi,

The difference of level between high
and low water mark at Cairo is ifty feet !;
at New Orleans the difference is but l2
feet. The width and depth of the river
from Carlo and Memphis to New Orleans
is not materially increased. yet immense
additions are made to the quantity of wat.
er in the channel by large streams from
both the eastern and western sides of the
Mississippi. The question naturally
arises, what becomes of this vast added
volume of water? 1t certainly never
reaches New Orleans, and as certainly
does not evaporate /; and. of course, it is
not confined to the channel of the river,
for it would rise far above the entire re-
gion south Of us.
If well is sunk anywhere in the Ark
ansas bottom, water is found as soon az
The waterlevel Of the Mississippi is reach
ed. When the Mississippi goes down,
the water sinks accordingly in the well.
The owner of sawmill, some twenty
miles from the Mississippi, in Arkansas,
dug we'll to supply the boilers of his
engine, during the late flood. When the
waters receded, his well went down till
his hose would no longer reach the wat
er, and, finally his well 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 agair-having liter
ally drank ten acres of water in less than
a week. The inference is, that the whole
valley of the Mississippi, from its banks
to the highlands on either side, rests on
porous 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
Mississippi were like the shores of the
Ohio. the vast plain from Cairo 10 New
Orleans would, to-day, be part and par
eel of the Gulf of Mexico, and this whole
valley vast fresh water arm of the sea.
Were the geological character of the val
ley different, the construction of levees,
confning the waters of the Mississippi to
its channel, would cause the rise in the
river to become so great at the South,
that there no sufficient levee could be
built. The current would be stronger
and the accumulation of water greater as
the leyees are extended north of us.
Such results were reasonably enough
anticipated but the water instead of
breaking the levees, permeates the po-
rous soil, and the overflow is really be-
meath the surface of the swamps. Such,
it seems to us, are the wise provisions
of natural laws for the safety and ulti-
mate reclamation Of the rich country
south of US.
We believe that the levee system will
be successful, and that the object of It's
adoption will be obtained. The porosity
of the material used in max ing them, has
caused most If not all of the crevasses.-
Men may deem it a superhuman task to
wall in the Mississippi from Carlo to New
Orleans, but our levees are the work of
pigmies when contrasted with the dykes
of Holland. The foodtide of the Miss
issippi is but ripple on the surface of
a CLASSY pool. compared with the ocean
billows that dash agains the artificial
shores of Holland. The country to be
reclaimed by our levees-all Of which
will not for fifty years cost the people as
much as those of the Dutch when orig
inally built-would make one hundred
such kingdoms as that over which Bona
parte once welded the secptre.-.Nm-
phis avalanche.