, 1862-07-18

By this mems smBu thread Of water, about
foot wide, was decoyed into #, where 1t remains
at present, looking very much bewildered, as
though it.d1d not know where to run to. Tha
The entire south side of the canal is now
composed Of loose earth, thrown up from the
deepening, aud should the river ff8e GufH-
C1ent to make q current through the cana1
think this loose earth would be undermined
iii it up sufficiently TO stop the current. The
labor Of widening the canal wou1d almost be
equal to that Of digging new one,
Independent Of this. another fact to be ta-
Ken into consideration. The course Of the
mississippi Is dehectsa By the range Of the
Walnut Hills, npon which Vicksburg Is built
In front Of Vicksburg the river is narrower
than usual and consequently deeper I am
told on good authority that it is 200 feet deep
for more than g mile above and below the
been informed that soandlngs were made by
the fag ship Hartford during her passage on
the 26ln, with over 100 feet Of line, without
finding bottom, and where the Hartford ID
now anchored, which Is ahove the deepest por-
tion of the bend and where the river is much
| wider and consequently mora sha1la Wier,
saw the lead cast my self in thirteen fathoms Of
wster. Now even with 3 free Strong current
+ running through the canal, It certainly must
| take several mouths fot the river to cut Itself
| new channel 200 or 800 feet deep, and for the
sediment In the meantime to I'll up the deep
4
| it out in the co1d.n River: steamboat men, o1
| whom there are number here, object to the
canal on still another score. They say that all
the wonderful cut offs that have been made in
couIse Of the river, have begun at point
where the mnin current Of the river has In
| pigned sgainst the shore Of some bend
but the upper end Of this canal i
unfortunately located In an eddy, the
current striking the shore nearly q hal
q mile below. As for the number Of contra
=. D. - Af1,r -11 4tr.n ,xzt
era] thopeand, as see stated In some prints
though the number has been increased lately
and ou1 soldiers, AN GLAD to see, have beer
relieved from digging. and set to oversseing th
work This is az it should be, only that th
number Of eontrabands should be increased
work Their present number does not eKces
! sr0, hut can easily be doubled or treb1ed.
As far as matters in the fleets Sre concerned
hear Of no movement whatever, except th
[ movement Of Porter's mortar fleet, which II
port says is to 20 down stream today and OF
l suppose there must be some good reaso
? | why two large fleets haV1ng over three hundre
! guns Of long range and heavy ca6bre, besldt
Ewenty-four thirteen inch xnortsrs, every OF
Of which last is near enough to throw one !
9 its hinge shells not only into the town, b'
I over II and behiDg it, making perfect cordc
- Of fire along lis further suburbs, where IL
: rebels are supposed to be in camp. (suppose
f. Iesy, for we have seen very few Of them
J, | yet.) repeat that there must or ought to
!. some good reason why all these mortars AZ
gums should, though within range, rema1n
e active In front Of batteries that, to the best
/. CUR knowledge, do rot contain over fifty gun
Il A day or tWo, when WAS down on the Po1n
- which 1s not over twelve hundred yards fro
their principa battery, i was not able. with got
glass ard The most careful scrutiny Of t
Ia whole range Of bills which swept around I
like an anp1iheatre, to detect over tTen