Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-06-17
THE FATHER or WATERS.
Letter In Reply to " Euclid ".--Gut.ofs IL
the River.

HHHL.. aH.
EDITORS appeal. "Euclid,'' Of Mem
pl Is, makes a grave mistake when he says
I At cut-offs cannot be made at u point
q the Mississippi where a man of sense
ana Judgment would say they ought TO
be. General Grant will confer a great IA
Yor on me and the "rest of mankind il
he Will only tell us that he did not try 70
make a cutoff at Vicksburg, or if he did
really desire 70 make said cutoff, tina he
had q set of ignorant engineers who did
not know what they were at work at. 1
scarcely eyer mention the subject of cut-
OILS that l am not met with the ASSERTION
that they caDnot be made because Grant.
with the whole Federal army, was unable
TO make one at Vlcksburg. Don't EN-
cid" know that Grant could have dug
his canal as deep and as wide as ne
wished simply with the ~6agonets of his
soldiers in less than N week, If he had
dry land to work upon? Did Euclid
ever hear tell of a cutoff in the Missis-
sippi river2 How many have been at
tempted and failed, especially when at
tempted by civil operatiOns-that is. by
the Slater In regard to the rela-
tive distance round the bend, and
the distance across the point or neck.
L claim to know about as much about
that as any one else. I know tina the
greater the proportional distance is, the
easier It is to make a cutoff, and unless
the difference is very great, it is very K
penslVe and in some proportions almost
impossible. Unless the distance around a
pend IS at least three TO one, 1t is almost
impossible; but owe five to one il be-
comes pracJicable-much depending upon
the kind of soil through which the ditch
has to be dug. In the cutoff RECON-
mended by me at Island 81. the distance
around the bend is about fifteen l5
miles, across the point, 1 think, less than
one mile. Let Euclid calculate what a
ditch WOuld cost one mile long, twenty
feet deep n twenty or thirty feet wide.
and he has he cost of the cutoff re-
commended. AS to the changes Of the
current and channel of the river below.
let him ask any old pilot or waterman
how it would work. Of course. the river
would have to be high to make the cut
OF and to change the channel through
the chute of Island 80; but 1 should not
oe AFRAID 10 risk my life up
on b assertion that if the
ditch is properly located it would
change the channel through the chute of
Forty. The change below Island Forty
might be a question of doubt, but with a
little assistance from Instructions on
the Arkansas side, the channel could be
thrown on the Tennessee side of Paddy's
Hen and Chickens.
I fear Euclid" has "an ak to Qriud.U
ana expects to get a chance to waste some
100000 to Sl,0O0,000 of the city's money
in e~ndeavOring to stop the csving of your
levee. 1 should say sit is more than folly
TO spend money! throwing tones or any
other substance into the river at the
point where the caving is now going on.
admit that the current must be
changed at some point above. any
plan" will certainly effect a radical
'hange at the points above designated,
1t is reasonable to expect that it will
produce the desired effect. We venture
he assertion that the owners of the land
lround the bends of Thirty-seven and
Chirty-eight and Forty-one will pay all
damages to lands effected by the cutoff 1 ]
{
1 admire the consolation "Euclid' gives !
he property-holders, in his last para
,raf about a landing at the navy yard.
NJurs, ETC., JAMES b. MILES. !