Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-07-23
THE FATHER OF WATERS.
TRAVIS WINHAM,
For Press and
Nashville. Tenn. Jan. p. 1867.

Its Subterranean FIOw-The TumbIing
in May Occur at Any TIme-CurIOus
FacIs-The Dangers Of It's Riparian
DenizeBs.
A correspondent Of the UNION AND
DISPATCH having suggested that Memphis
was liable, at any moment, 10 fall IN TO
a watery abyss beneath it, caused by the
subterra6ean Aow Of the Mississippi, the
Bulletin, adds the following:
The river shore in the Navy Yard has
rapidly disappeared. There steamers rarely
land. In front Of the city proper there are
always from ten to twenty steamers. By
these the earth, at the waters edge, is pro-
tected and the force Of the surface current
il broken. Hence il happens that the
earth at the waters edge and for ten or
twenty feet below, remains unbroken. The
great body Of the mighty tide of waters,
forty and fifty feet below, rlishes onward IN
its unresisted course rending away the
earth. How far the stream passes beneath
the citp, there is, of course, no means of as
cerlaining. The explosion Of torpedoes,
forty or fifty feet below the rivers surface,
shook every building west Of the bayou
Beyond the bayou, the shock was unheeded,
unfelt
Many years ago a saw mill was at work
ia the swamps of Arkansas, twenty miles
from the Mississippi The owner awoke
one bright morning TO find his we'll dry,
in which the day before there was water
time OF four feet deep. He cut a trench
TO a broad long surface pond, not far away,
and was again supplied with an abundance
Of water This trench connected the pond
and we'll. Three days elapsed, and pond
and well both were empty. The old man
ii the mill was amazed. The story was
told 10 a traveller from Memphis. at is
plain enough" he said "the river is lower
than for years past, and your well and pond
have emptied themselves into the great
sewer Of the continent" The Mississippi
not only overhows, but underRous all the
broad valley through which it passes. Its
channel, however broad and deep, could
not contain all rains that fall and streams
that come down from the mountains, terri
tories, and States Of America.
At Fort Pillow and Randolph every ev-
idence Of war has disappeared, swallowed
up by the Great River. Earthworks at
Randolph, built in 1861, three hundred
yards from the shore, have gone to the Ba-
lize. AT both these places the river cur
rent, as here at Memphis, strikes the shore
almost at right angles. A city paper tells
us how planter, within the week, depos-
tied $1,000 worth Of supplies upon the river
bank somewhere in Arkansas He had not
gone half mile when the country behind
him disappeared with all his stores
Reelfoot Lake is fathomless. 1t is not
Tar from the river. The night before the
earthquake of 1872, lofty trees stood where
deep, silent still waters now have unbroken
repose. Cypress trees two hundred feet
high went down. Their Hottest branches
do not reach the surface of the wonderful
lake. Years before the great river had un-
dermined the country, the land went down
and water came UP Everywhere around
New Madrid we have indubitabe evidence
that the mighty river finds its way far be-
meath the esrth's surface. An earthquakes
shock broke down the earthen bridges that
everywhere along the river shores span
mighty streams and deep subterranean
lakes that are reservoirs 10 supply atmos~
pheric moisture aud hold the superabun-
dant waters Of this broad valley.