Connecticut western news., 1874-05-22
THE INUNDATION.
Extent Of tho Overflow i'm Louisiana,
 Arkansas, and Mississippi.

Extent Of tho Overflow I'm Louisiana,
 Arkansas, and Mississippi.
 The New Orleans Picayune says that & quarter of Louisiana and large DOT tion of Arkansas and Mississippi were under water, and it goes into details as follows
 "Of the ffty-three parishes of Lou isiana, thirty-one are partially or en- tirely covered by the inundation. These parishes contain about 375, 900 people one-half of the whole population and seven-twelfths of the agricultural, la boring, or producing population of the State-upon whom not only New Or leans is dependent, but also the North and Europe itself for clothing and sup plies. The lands overfowed are calcu- lated at about 2,30O,000 acres, about one-fourth of which was under cultiva- tion in corn, cotton, and sugar when the flood began.
 "Looking at the various sections thus afflicted we find first the Yazoo Valley. Here the Mississippi has broken through at Hushpakana and Bolivar and transformed the whole Yazoo Val ley into an inland lake. Along the Amite, from its source in Mississippi to Lake Ponchartrain, the low lands are all under water, washing out poor but industrious class of people, almost all white. The Pearl River overflow is more of freshet than flood !; the rains alone arc answerable for it. The bridges between New Orleans and the North have been washed away, and the saw mills along that stream, that sup piled New Orleans and the Southwest with lumber, have suffered great | deal. .... ss...
 "In Arkansas, although the Chicot and | St. Francis crevasses cover some ], ,6OO, 900 acres, yet they have not caused such loss as in other parts of the country, as, for instance, the Quachita and Black River bottoms. Here the condition is most frightfully appalling, with little chance of relief for months to come. For over 200 miles the Quachita has spread out it's stream to from ten to fifty miles wide. When the inhabitants fled to the back lands with their prop erty, they encountered the waters flow ing from the Mississippi crevasses. Thus between two floods their Dnly refuge was the housetops, where they are now living, having lost their cattle, their clothing, even their power tc work.
 "The four great cotton parishes oi Madison, Tensas, Concordia, and Car roll are filled by quite number of ere vases at Bass, quarter of mile wide Point Lookout, Hard Times, Buck Ridge, Glassock, half mile wide al of them averaging seven feet in depth and opening the country to an artifcisl river two miles in width. Just .beloV the mouth of Red River occur the two most murderous crevassees in the State the Morganza and Hickey; the Nor ganza, nearly mile wide, running al the rate of three and half miles ar hour; the Hickey, third of mile ir width, ten feet deep, and pouring in al the rate of nine and half miles ar hour. After covering the river-front parishes of Poine Coupe, West Bator Rouge. and Iberville, the water from the crevasses swelled the Atchafalaya Lafourche and Teche to such volum, as to overflow every parish on its course to the sea-St. Landry, Lafourche, La fayettee, Terrebonne, St. Mary, ant others. Here the waters deal doubl, destruction, overfowing the richest al luvial country in the world, and de stroying one-third of the sugar crop O the State. Back of the banks dwell tn, small settlers, Cadiens and others, wht are dependent on their hunting, ant the products of their fields and thei cattle for support from day to day Several lives have been lost here. Thos, who remain are crying for food ant clothing. Below New Orleans, il Plaquemines, almost the whole countr, has been inundated.
 "To sum up the flood from Memphi to the Passes, the crevasses are ove fifty miles in width. Through then flow streams greater and more power ful than the mighty Mississippi itself and which pour out on this devoted country 100000 cubic feet of wate every hour. Not only is this wate thrown on the land, but it must find it way to the sea through 600 miles of lo0 a1luvial lands. It is not hyperbole tben, to say that the Mississippi i wider now than the far-famed Amazon j. whose mouth is 250 miles in width. Tn loss to the crops has been calculated a follows Cotton, 300,0O0 bales sugar 10000 hogsheads, and almost a tots destruction of the tobacco and ric crops, the last one of the most promis ing and ever increasing industries c Louisiana.