The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-02-20
Dredging in the Passes.

merce, to the Chamber of Commerce, and
adopted by that body on the 9TH inst.
Judging from the report, the members OF
the Commit to, seem to have no knowledge
whatever, either professional or practi-
cal, of the subject on which they were
called upon to report. They seem to de-
pend entirely on the information derived
from others, which simply consists of the
present depth of water in the Pass aPOutre
the depth it is said to have had last June
the time the Essayons has been employed,
and the number of days it actually worked,
together with the result, the plain, unvar-
-nished fact, that the work of dredging, in
this instance, like all the previous ones, is
a failure. AS to the opinions given as to
what may, can or might be done, the infer
ences drawn, the expectations held out, and
the promises made, we don't>regard them
rs Conveying any information. They are
really nothing but mere reiteration of
what we have SO often seen in print durir g
the last twenty years. We have some
recollection of having read that report of
July last, and in accordance with that
recollection, we think it spoke favorably
of the success of the Essayons in securing
that the balance of the appropriation then
on hand should be applied to the services
of that boat, which would secure depth
of twenty feet some time in the Fall. We
had read such promises too often to have
any faith in them, and the result has
justified our want of faith. The twenty
feet channel is not there, and, still worse,
the eighteen feet channel said to have been
there in June last, like all the other chan
nels made, certified to and paid for, has
disappeared. However, that channel in
June last may not have been a fact. A
ship requiring depth of eighteen feet
three inches may have been carried through
by the Essayons, but we We're not told how
many feet of mud that vessel may have
been dragged through.
The report says: +" 1t is with feeling of
profound regret that the hopes and expecta
tions INDUCED in by us have, SO far, not
been realized. The fact, however, is before
us that, after seven months, we have less
water on that bar than the soundings
that ''One fact is worth Il Thousand argu-
ments," but the fact which the committee
in it's reports admits is before them, is only
the recurrence of what has happened more
than once in our river, and, ii the Com
mittee had only looked back to the ex-
perience of the last thirty years, during
which three or four different dredging opera
~, l,o rl
every instance, like the last, they have
proved failures, they might, perhaps, feel
some doubt about those hopes and expecta-
ions, which, under the same circumstances,
never have been, and, we have no hesita-
ton in saying, never can be realized. The
singular persistency with which they cling
to these hopes and expectations in the face
of repeated failures would be admirable if
they were not SO costly. They recommend
that a system of operations which has
signally failed in the last seven months be
continued in the Pass FOutre until March
LIST, and then, if it prove still a failure,
| that it be tried in the. Southwest Pass.
That must be a curious system of opera
tions to adopt for the Improvement of the
navigable capacity Of tidal river whose
repeated failures appear to be it's strongest
recommendation.
The committee are entirely mistaken as
to the real question at issue. 1t is not the
professional reputation of the officers or the
capability of the Essayons that is at stake
it is the system. To suppose that the
shoals of light sand and soft sediment
which the river has brought down, some of
| it more than two t. ousand miles, and de-
posted ut the mouth of the Mississippi, or
any other tidal river similar in the character
of its channel and in the materials which
compose its bed, can be removed by
dredging, is contradictory to the law which
our Omnipotent Creator has impressed upon
| the face of nature, to the rules which
science has established, to the practical ex-
peIience of the best hydraulic engineers,
and to the fact which the Committee in their
report, say is before them. They had bette
leave the shoals alone, and turn their at
tention to the causes which have produced
them, and, having discovered them, let
them be removed. In other words, let the
channel of the river be subjected to a
proper regulation, so that its waters may
be concentrated, and every thing calculated
to check the upward flow of the tide during
the flood removed, and the waters increased
in.volume and velocity during the ebb will
lhaVe sufficient mower TN remove the sho,l =