The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-05-15
THE LEvEEs OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
From the New Orleans Picayune.

From the New Orleans Pcayune.
The levees on the Mississippi river measure
about 100 miles, or 1,250,O00 yards, and one
single yard OF ievee giving way will bring about
the Inundation of a whole section of country,
and destroy property to the amount Of millions
of dollars
The very best levees are liable to break at
times from crevasses entirely beyond human
control, aud which are iu a great measure, ow.
ing to the sandy material we are compelled to
use in building them. For instance, me Hag-
gaman levee, near Lake Providence, which. gave
way in 1858, was considered to be one OF the
best levees ever built.
Levees have been known to break from the
effect of rat aud crawfsh holes, from the effects
OF wind of rain, of waves, &c.
Sometimes the cause of the break lies within
the levee itself, and cannot be suspected until
after the levee has given way. Some eight or
ten days after the upper crevasse had occurred,
the levee gave way about five acres below, aud q
new crevasse took place. Upon examination it
was found out that the levee was nothiug but q
mere she'll, the substance of which had leaked
out through hole about three inches in diam
eter, its base the river side The inter.
mittent action of the waves, injecting water
through the hole and sucking it away as soon
as it saturated with the sand forming the
substance of the levee, had carried OF the entire
inside aud left mere shell or crust
Another cause of crevssses is nd.elides.
These are owing to the fact that cur soil is form
ed entirely of deposits of alluval sand, which,
having no adhesive or cohesive properties, is
rubbed off aud carried away by the friction of
the current of the Mississippi against it. In
this way the banks of the river are undermined
by slow but sure degrees, until the upper struc-
ture, having no more foundation to stand upon,
slides into the river and Of course, carries away
the evee built on it,
Another popularity very noticeable, and at
the same time very perpiexing, in caving banks
aud land slides, is that, changing their locality
all the time, they shift from place to another,
and may endanger next year the very place
that considered the most secure the season
previous
In lS44a landslide took place close by the
French market in this city, and threatened the
verp structure ITSELF but the next season tho
river commenced making at the same spot, and
it has, by this time, restored more than it hae
taken away then.
These land.sdes take place without any signs
indicating their approaching appearance. For
instance, some ~ years ago, Mr. Andry, well
known citizen of this place, was passing on
horseb back on the levee, when, all at once, q
land slide took place, and carried away levee,
horse and rider, and they have never been seen
or heard of since.
The changes in front of New Orleans are such
that the former shape of the crescent to which
our city isindebted for its surname, is daily dis
appearing, and many of US can remember that
Western fatboats used to make fast to tree
then growing few feet from the spot where
the south corner of tho Custom House now
stands. The river is now about 800 feet dis
tant from that spot
Our city has already sold, and will sell before
long, some Is or 18 whole squares of ground
thus formed by the continued shifting of the
river eastward. AS a counterpart, Algiers is
losing every year about as much ground as New
Orleans is making.
That feature of the Mississippi restoring on
one side what it takes on the other, is fully de-
monstrated by the following example Some
twenty years ago, Mr. Valcour Aimc's dwelling
house, parish of St. James, was right on the
river. Almost opposite on the other side, stood
the residence of Mr. George Mather, built about
one milo from the bank. To-day, Nlr Valcour
Aime's house stands one mile from the bank,
and Mr Mather's has been engulfed by the.
river.
These changes assume, sometimes, propor-
tons really astonishing, as in the following case:
In the early times of this country, Natchez, the
camping grounds Of the Indian tribe of that
name, stood at the distance Of three hundred
measured miles from New Orleans; siuce then
the Ksccourci cutoff, the Shreve cutoff, and
others have shortened that distance more than
sixty miles. Still the river has 80 very nearly
re established its own regimen, that the distance
between the two cities, which by the laws Of
arithmetic ought 90 be three hundred less sixty,
or two hundred and forty miles, is set, this very
day, two hundred and eighty measured miles.