The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-02-13
Dredging in the Passes.

at this time is astonishing. OF course they
all propose to do something in return for
what they ask. If it is a railroad, they
propose to build altogether for the pub
lie good. Therefore the projectors think
the public ought to pay them for building
it, and invest them with the ownership,
and all the rights and privileges considered
necessary by corporations in such cases.
If grand levee company is projected, they
want full control over both banks of the
Mississippi, with the right to o heavy sys-
tenn of assessed charges and power to col
lect them, in order that the public may pay
all the expenses, and the company be en-
abled to make handsome dividends. Whe-
ther draining the city, or building State
house, one cry accompanies all, "Let us
have money" The number of spectators
in the public funds, all ready to do some
| thing for the public good, and all uttcring
the same cry, is almost countless.
Amony other plans to benefit the public,
particularly our good city of New Orleans,
the old one of deepening the mouths of the
Passes by dredging comes up as good as
| new. If dredging had not been tried sew
| eral times during the last thirty years, and
always failed of the effect promised, though
we were always assured of its success, if
about half million of dollars had not
been spent in those attempts, with no bene-
fit whatever to the public, there might be
some reason in receiving such proposition,
and some hopes of its success. But our
experience has had too many lessons, and
those lessons have been too costly to leave
any room for faith in mode of operation
that has never yet succeeded, and never
can succeed, in permanently removing the
soft sediment deposited at the mouth of q
large river.
There is something singular in the fact
that, while there are so many ready to
undertake to remove the deposits by dredg-
ing, very few seem to think it necessary to
inquire into the causes that produced those
deposits. AS long as the causes are per-
mitted to continue, there. is no possibility
of any permanent removal of the effects.
The only way to open, and permanently
keep open the mouth of any of the Passes
is to remove the causes which have dimin-
ASiiSu 1eo LA SosoAS SotstSAey'
But some affect to understand, and to
give the causes that have produced the de-
posts at the mouth of our river. A dis
patch from the Washington correspondent
of the New York Herald assigns reason
for the deposits, which it gives as coming
Here it is: "The meeting of salt water
water tides and fresh water currents causes
rapid deposits, which the counter currents
retain stationary. The action of gases
below the bed of the river are Gs) con-
,stantly forcing tough clay upward" The
causes here assigned are neither consistent
with reason nor facts. The river Mississippi
with its numerous tributaries drains an
immense extent of country, and its waters,
when they enter the lower valley OF delta,
are heavily laden with the sand and sedi-
ment they have swept along in their course.
When they come to an abrupt bend, their
velocity and securing power are checked,
they deposit Il portion of their burden, and
a shoal is formed above and below the
bend. When they come to an outlet, the
velocity and securing power of the current
is again diminished by the loss of water
through the outlet, aud shoal is formed
below the outlet. Thus shoals, bars and
islands are gradually formed, and the
depth and velocity of the water and the
level of the bottom of the bed of the river
cease to be uniform, and the channel be-
comes dangerous to navigation. AS the
descending waters approach the mouth, and
divide into Passes, which have almost in
Vulnerable lateral outlets, they have lost
so much in volume, velocity and securing
power that they are no longer able to carry
with them all the sedimentary matter
which they brought down. The heavier
particles are deposited at the mouth, the
lighter are swept into the Gulf. 1t is not
the tide that causes the deposits, it is the
loss of water in the main channels, and
the irregularity of the channel, though
the tide helps to increase them during the
flood. When the tide rises, the weight and
volume of its waters, pressing from behind
pushes back the river water and fills all
the lower channel of the river that it can
reach, largely increasing the deposits, not
because of its salt, but on account of its
weight and power. But when the tide
turns, all the water that passed up during
the flood, increased in volume, velocity