The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-21
The Mouths Of the Mississippi.
INSPECTION OF THE BALIzE-DREDGTNG OF THE
gANDBARS

recently sent q deputatiOn to the BallZe TO see
which one of the passes could best serve the
uses Of commerce. The following account of
the affair is taken from the New Orleans
Times
"The vexed question as to which of the passes
into which the river separates at its mouth has
the deepest water, is one about which the com
mercial public of this city has been for some time
divided Southwest Pass, as every one knows,
is the channel that has been, for many years
past, used by pilots and tow-bOat companies,
and for which their preference is still strongly
shown. On the othe1hand, Pascal Outre, as
being forty miles shorter for the main highwayof
commerce, and as afording still greater advan-
tage in the way of easterly winds, was the one
selected by the United States Government for
Improvement To clear out this pass and deepen
ii from twelve to eighteen feet has been the
work of the EssayOnus for some months past
and the prosecution of this work il was con-
tended had been successful. lt was to verify
these statements, and ascertain whether the
water was really deepencd or had been merely
rendered so momentarily by wind and tide, or
by difference of measurement, that the deputa-
ton was sent.
"To assist them in settling this question, Col
lector Casey on Wednesday rendered to these
bodies and representatives of the press the of
| the revenue cutter Wilderness, to examine into
| the matter themselves.
"Thc Wilderness, having cast off from the
wharf at $50 o'clock ON Thursday morning,
| glided down the river, stopping mOmentarily
at quarantine and at the fort upon the western
| side.
"On arriving at the Southwest Pass soundngs
| were taken.
"These soundngs showed fourteen feet for
| their shoaest depth, two throws for fifteen, one
| for 15I5, and SO on. This much having been
| ascertaincd and glimpse of the waste of wa
| ters outside OF the bar having been taken Cap
! tain Freeman cast anchor.
cat 5l9 o'clock next morning the soundings Of
| the night previous were repeated, and proved to
! be substantially the same as when first taken.
! The shoalest water found was twelve feet, but
! this rs it was cOntended and shown, not in
! the channel of the river. The sOundings of the
morning altogether were considered no test as
| the Wilderness hugged very closely the shore
at the time they were made.
"The cutter now passed out six miles beyond
| land until the muddy current appeared as thin
| stratum upon the waters of the Gulf, until the
| deep green of the latter could be seen through
the yellow stratum above.
"Steaming on i'm this way, the distant observa-
| tory was seen. which marked what was once
Balize, and what was the most hourishing town
that ever sprung up about the mouth of the
river. Balize dated its settlement from the dis
cOvery of the mouth of the river by the Spa
hards. and its first inhabitants doubtless dream
ed that it was destined to become the great city
of the Mississippi Valley. The houses were
built on piles. The place was surrounded by
levee with street planted with trees, with an
esplanade mile long, and had its church,
school-house hotel, Salariel teacher and ply
sician. The pilots were prosperous, and many
of them owned slaves. The houses were well
constructed, and the place, for its sea brcczes
and bathing, was no ncOnsiderable resort in
summer. What caused its destruction n
change in the depth of Northeast Pass, which
event occurred little before the war. The
entrance to the river commenced to grow more
and more shOal with each year, until at the
present time, as was ascertained a week ago by
actual experiment, there is not Il depth of eight
feet.
Commerce having no longer any use for
Northeast Pass, and pretcrring the Southeast
! Pass the pilots, of course, had to go where
! they could find employment The town soon
became completely abandoned. AT the prcsen
| time there is not single one of its former in
| habitants remaining. The hotel two or three
| stories high, large sail loft, and the observa-
| tory are left standing, but beyond this there is
not a single vestige of the beautiful town that
formerly existed there. Even the levees which
| surrounded the place have been washed away
and have disappeared, and what was almost a
city, as now seen, differs but little from the
marsh upon which the buildings had been con-
structed.
"The first attempt to deepen the passes was
made in 1888 by Captain Talcott, who then OBJ
tanned an appropriation of $50, 600 for this pur-
pose, and whose failure at Northeast Pass re-
suited in the ruin to the Balize above de-
scribed. The plan then adopted was that of
scOOping up the mud at the bottom of the river
until the dredge-bOat was filled, and of then
dumping the mud outside of the channel 1t
hardly need be said that this attempt proved an
absolute failure. The contract was next taken
who, with an appropriation of $500, 900, agreed
to secure channel twenty feet deep and three
hundred feet wide. This plan was to drive
piling upon either side of what was
destined to be the channel, and through
the jetties thus made to force the current.
They actually proceeded so far in this plan
to drive mile of piles. The at
tempt was again abandoned, in consequence
of the fact that the first storm loosened the piles
and they were foated away. This was in 1856
In 1858 the towboat company sub-contracted for
the work, and succeeded so far as to make for n
year channe!of depth of nearly eighteen feet.
This was the most successful attempt ever
hitherto made Their plan was to drag an inn
mense barrow up and down the bar, and in this
way, and with the use of a scraper, to loosen the
clods or mud Jumps. In 1867 the contract was
taken hold of by Mr.. Wiggins, who accomplished
nothing, not even the drawing of SO, 600. The
EssayOns was now built at the Atlantic Works.
at Boston, at a cost of 1928 000 under the appro-
September has been at work at the Pass alOutre
bar.
"When the Essayons began work in February
GOr so many accidents occurred previously that
| nothing up to that month aCcomplishedO
the crest ofsthe bar was then fourteen feet below
the water. The bar, which slopes down to q
| depth of eighteen feet below the water upon
either side, extends mile and a quarter in
| length and, as the channel is to be two hundred
| and fifty feet wide the amount of the work
since accomplished may be readily arrived at
when to these data il is added that on the 18th
of June there was at the shoalest depth seven
teen feet and eight inches of water.
SIN March the Essayons broke screw, and
had to leave to 90 to the city repair her screw
/ The bar was fifteen feet when she left; when she
returned a month after the depth had decreased
. a foot and half This fact shows that to keep
the channel open the work must be constantly
kept up