The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-08-07
The Subterrauenn Flow OF the Mis-
sissipDi.

A correspondent of the Nashville Union
md Dispatch having suggested that Mem
phis was liable at any moment to I" fall in"
to Il watery abyss beneath it, caused by
the subterranean flow of the Mississippi,
the Bulletin adds the following:
The river shore in the navy-yard has "a
pidly disappeared. There steamers rarely
land. In front of the city proper there
are always from ten to twenty steamers.
By these the earth ut the waters edge is
protected and the force Of the surface
current is broken. Hence it happens that
the earth at the waters edge and for ten
or twenty feet below remains unbroien.
The great body Of the mighty tide of wa
tiers, forty or fifty feet below, PUSHES on
ward in its unresistcd course rending
away the earth. How far the stream
passes beneath the city, there is Of course
no means of ascertaining. The explosion
of torpedocs forty or fifty feet below the
rivers surface shook every building west
Of the bayou. Beyond the bayou the
shock was unheeded and unfelt.
Many years ago saw-mill was at work
in the swamps of Arkansas, twenty miles
from the Mississippi. The owner awoke
one bright morning to find his well dry, in
which the day before there was water three
or four feet deep. He cut trench to
broad, long surface pond, not far away,
and was again supplied with an abundance
Of water. This trench connected the pond
and well. Three days elapsed, and pond
aud well both were empty. The old man
Of the mill was amazed. The story was
told to a traveller from Memphis. "It is
plain enough" he said, "the river is lower
than for years past, and your we'll and pond
have empticd themselves into the great
sewer of the continent" The Mississippi
not only oyertlows but uadertlo,rs all the
broad valley through which it passes. Its
channel, however broad and deep, could
not contain all the rains that fall and
streams that come down from the noun
lainS, Territories and States of America.
A, Forts Pillow and Randolph every evil
dence OF war has disappeared, swallowed
up by the great river. Earthworks at
kandol h, built in 1861, 800 yards from the
shore, have gone to the Balize. At both
these places the river current, as here at
Memphis, strikes the shore at almost right
angles. A city paper tells us how plan
ter, within the week, deposited $4,000
worth OF supplies upon tho river bank,
somewhere IN Arkansas. He had not
gone nan mile when the country behind
nm disappeared with all his stores.
keelloot Lake is tathomless. 1t is not
Tar from the river. The night before the
earthquake Of 1872 lofty trees stood where
deep, silent, still waters have unbroken
r,epose. Cypress trees 200 feet high went
down. Their lottiest branches do not
Ieacn the surface Of the wonderful lake.
Years before the great river had under
u'hed the couutry-the land went down
ana water came up. Everywhere around
New Madrid we have indubi,able evidence
INA. the mighty river finds its way far be-
ath The earth'S surface. An earth
t.;ano shock broke down the earthen
sb tuses .' .aat everywhere along the river
trrraneap AMI 1a mighty streams and deep sub
ply atmospheric moisture an u9'i So " sup,
ley. u 'h'' broad val