New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-14
RECKONING UP THE MISSISSIPPI.

About one month ago, the REPUBLICAN,
drawing facts from the Bureau of State
Engineers, foretold there would be mo
high water this year, 1t was said, "That's
all very well; but the June rise often makes
a flood on its own account" Now there
will be no June rise to hurt anybody. The
swamps are reservoirs into which the sur
plus water of the Mississippi runs and
holds. At present these basins are all dry.
The st. Francisville swamps are one hun
dred miles long and forty wide Besides,
there is the Black river region of Arkansas
the Tensas valley, and other low and
marshy localities not of much consequence
all are dry land. Were these overhOwed,
there might be some reason to apprehend
high water in June. So all the planters in
Louisiana may go to work in as much secuI-
ity as if their plantations were at Sherman
on the Pacific railroad, ten thousand feet
above the sea, instead of being, as they
are, but few feet from tide level.
month ago those unacquainted with the
dynamics of the river, hearing OF the great
Northwest, were full of predictions of
freshets and foundations. At present they
are all prophets of dry spell or drouth.
This is far more probable. To step aside
from the line of this article, accounts are
coming in of the appearance of locusts,
which devOur everything in their way,
while nQisOme vermin of air, earth and
water are on the increase everywhere.
Everybody is praying for rain, and call
signs fail in dry weather" The river is
falling rapidly everywhere along the line of
its sinuous current. There is but nineteen
feet at Cairo, and the difficulties of river
approaches to st. Louis become more and
more perceptible every day. From all
these facts, all apprehensions of high water
in June may be laid on the shelf until the
signs are favorable.
The levee building has been going on
with great vigor. The work is never done,
for the banks as well as the volume of
water. the bed, the current, the force, the
height of the great river are in constant
change. No two days finds all of them alike,
and before one can realize the difficulty
that besets our river engineers, he must un-
derstand this tact first and appreciate it.
The cause of repairs lies in caves" where
one sides falls in and the other builds up.
Of late, many of these reconstructions have
been made by individuals directly inter
ested, for which work they have been paid,
and it is the first time in the history of the
State, since the war, this has been done.
Since last November, about one hundred
and seventy-six levees have been built and
the accounts and estimates of more arrive
every day. constant vigilance is kept up
by the levee, and it would be hard to find
spot in the WHOLE line, including the Atcha-
talaya, Ouachita and Red rivers, not
guarded by levees. What has been done
already nearly reaches two million
yards. F ar as it has been ascertained
the Elton mud bank in Carroll, and the
Buckridge and Kemp in Tensas, are the
of those that are new, while there
is any quantity of smaller works of this
kind finished in all directions We are
Testing quietly in the city, talking politics, |
and growing at the dull times, while out |
in the alluvion the Ievee builders toll like |
beavers, and the ''big drink pushes along !
with great tOrce. While we in the city are |
raising Cain" they are providing to raise |
corn, and this, too, unheralded and unan- |
The first thing you know some
politician who is tout" of office, wishing to /
set on some other politician who is Sin"
viii want to know what becomes of the |
peoples money. The levee company is
daily making the levees into au unbrOken |
line, and If they succeed in defending the |
lowlands from floods and their conse-
quencs, their compensation will be cheap.
1t Is out of the question in a general ar
ticle to specify the work done and its char
acter. In some instances a ''pocket" has
been made on the principle lit is cheaper
to go around than go across" as the
stream has made swamp on the line a
straight cut would be obliged to take. In
other places the levees have been repaired
in zig-zag shape, but ''shape amt nothing
the work will tell, to paraphrase an old
saying. The wear and tear which enforces
this construction is estimated at about four
per cent year. The magnitude of thework
can be guessed at when one is informed
that there are about 1900 miles to be watched
aud TO be made into an unbroken wall.
With the levees all built, or in progress
IF rapid construction, with no prospect of
an overflow this year, with the promise of a
harvest in the near future, we,
5he people of Louisiana, have great cause
Of cOngratulation.