The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-02-11
THE SHIP ISLAND CANAL AGAIN.

| 't 80 . - fa ai
One of our contemporaries regards the Ship
Island Canal project as absurd and impracti-
cable ''unless, indeed, some extraordinary
geniuses, who have appeared in these extraor-
binary and most exceptional times, have dis
covered and stand prepared to put into prac-
tice new principles in the laws of physics, and
to demonstrate that bodies of water can be
made to flow with regular current over
dead level" All of which, with due respect
to the writer thereof, is simply nonsense.
Without assuming that water scan be made
to flow with regular current over dead
level" the Typographical facts to which the
article appeals fatty contradict its differences.
The Mississippi River flows to the Gulf
through course of 120 miles after passing
New Orleans in other words, it finds the sea
level in 120 miles, which the proposed canal
would find in thirty miles, the fall being thus
four times greater in the latter case than in
the former. This fact proves that there
is no necessity for the appearance of
that extraordinary genius who is to
make water "fow with regular current over
dead level Moreover, the writer over
looks the fact that there are already two
canals, constructed for purposes of naviga-
ton, ind opening into Lake Pontchartrain.
The truth is that the Typographical conditions
of this part of Louisiana are peculiarly favor
able for canaling; and it is in just such coun-
tries-for instance Holland-that the canal
ing system has reached its highest develop
ment. Real difficulties are to be encountered
in such countries as Scotland, where the Gale
donna canal has been constructed with twenty.
four locks and New York, where the Erie
canal has been carried for more than three
hundred miles through territory varying in
level, and consequently requiring the applica-
ton of relatively complicated methods to
make the enterprise practicable In Lower
Louisiana, on the contrary, no such methods
are necessary. There is no sudden variation of
level but merely gentle fall to the sea, and
the nature of the superstratum is such as to
make the excavation an easy process. Thepa-
per to which we have referred declares that sit
1.-THE Ship Island CANAL is viewed as merely
imaginary by every educated engineer in this
State acquainted with its peculiarities of
topography" Now, we assert that no edu-
Gated engineer would risk his reputation by
such a statement, in the sense which our
contemporary intends to convey. On the
contrary, every educated engineer knows that,
as to its practicability, the Ship Island Canal
project is not attended with insurmountable
or even with peculiar difficulties. After the
construction of the Suez Canal, and the Gale
DOMAIN, and the Erie, and the Pennsylvania,
the man who could find extraordinary natural
obstacles in the way of a canal thirty or forty
miles long, in lower Louisiana, would exhibit
an amount of ignorance totally uniting him
to form an opinion on the subject. Before
leaving this branch of the subject, we
may as well refer to a passage con-
tanned in a letter from Mr.. Surgi, pub
ished yesterday morning. This gentleman
asserts that the storm level of Lake Borgne
is higher than the storm level of Lake Pontch-
artrain, thereby intimating an error in the
assertion of the CRESCENT that the Ship Is
land Canal would afford an outlet for the
storm waters of Lake Pontchartrain when
forced up the existing canals. But Mr.. Sur
gi's correction is no correction. The Cries.
CENT said nothing about Lake Borgne, because
the proposed canal does not open into that
lake. 1t does open into the Rigolets, and
we again assert that, during the prevalence
of those northwest winds, which following
Immediately after an easterly, or Southeastern
ly gale, banks up the water on the southeast
shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and the ex-
IRENE southern shore of Lake Borgne, the
level of the Rigolets is from two to four feet
lower than the level of the elevated waters
in the two lakes. That such must be the
case any one can perceive from even a
casual glance at the map.
AS to the attack which is made on the gen.
tleman who is at the head of the Ship Island
Canal Company, We may remark that it has
nothing to do with the merits of the question.
The enterprise, in its commercial aspects, is
not at all affected by the fact that it is under
taken by newcomers or by old residents.
Nevertheless, it is much more creditable TO
newcomers to engage in projects for the de-
velopment of the commercial and industrial
resources of New Orleans, than to carpet-bag
themselves into Office, and to ally themselves
with the enemies of the State. To confound
these two classes of newcomers together, is
an abuse of the just antipathy of our public
against the political Adventures with whom
we have been afflicted.