The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1869-12-11
Changes Wrought by Engineer
1nS.

bounded enterprise, of far-extendinl
thought, of limirless aspiration; pelioo
in the development of the worlds pro
gress when humanity strives to realize
in practice results greater than those
which in former times were the sub
OF wild dreams and chimerical fancies
This tendency is seen in art and in
science, and even in the more abstract
realm of philosophy; but in none is ii
more manifest than in the department
of engineering. Developed in the con-
struction of railways, it has built up
proud cities and altered great routes OF
travel swept away the trees ofthe Wild
erness TO make way for low meadow
grasses, and caused the prairie to be
bright with the CLEAN of rustling corn.-
changes all of them due directly to the
practical employment CT engineering
science. We might also point to the
dikes of Holland, built up by successive
generations of engineers, who drove back
and kept out the sea, until now broad
provinces are proud in the thlitt OF farms
and villages situate below the level Of
the surrounding waves; to the levees
along the Mississippi, that restrain the
river from pouring its turbid floods III on
the far-reaching and Lw-l lying districts
on either side; to the bridges. massive
in stone and iron, in various parts of the
world, whose arches span broad rivers
and cause them to be barriers between
opposing lands no more.
Although the daring Of engineers may
be illustrated aud shown by what they
have accomplished in the past, the full
scope Of their aims can only be known
from what they have proposed to do in
the future, and much of this, even in the
present enthusiastic and progressive
age, seems more like the legends Of some
old-time dreamer than like plans born
of deductions from actual facts 4ld
scientific data, Of these, the boring for
miles through the Hoosic Mountain, or
the rocky base Of Mount Gems, or the
digging of trench across the lsthlnus
OF Suez, through which ships may sail,
dwindle to dwarttd proportions when
compared with some that have been
suggested. TO illustrate this remark
may be mentioned proposition, brought
forward every few years in Europe, to
drain the vast land-locked arm Of the
sea on the coast of the Netherlands,
known as the Zuyder Zee, SO that a
new and broad extent of farming reg ion
may be added to that already won from
the pillows of the out shut SEA.
Of like character, but greater in the
grandeur of its conception, and more
important if ever carried into effect, is
another enterprise. proposed one or more
decades ago, of cutting huge canal
from the Mediterranean inland to the
great African desert, which was stated
to lie tar below the level of the waters
to the nortllward. BY thus submerging
the basin of Sahara, a vast inland sea
would be formed, upon which ships
might float to new-creaed coasts, tor
traffic with barbarous peoples hitherto
almost undiscovered and unknown
Were it not for the progress of engin-
eering art, there would be in warm and
tropic lands 40 dwellers save herdsmen
and sheperds, and in temperate and
colder clmcs, no inhabitants but those
who gained subsistence by the chase.
In all that the earth, from its first con-
dition Of plain and forests, has ever
changed the skill and energy of the en-
gincer has been the motive agent; and
in the days when the knowledge Of
means and forces shall be
more wi idely extended, and their capabili-
ties more fully understood, then the
achievements of what is now the far fu
ture. shall much transcend all that has
been accomplished in the mighty past.