New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-04-17
THE PRACTICAL PIL0Ts---THEY GIVE
EADS A VERY BLACK EYE.
As the REPUBLICAN has naturally bett

work upon which our merchants have be
slowed their support.
The Picoyune emulating the New Iork
Herald, has sent out a special commits
sioner, who visits the mouths OF the river
to obtain all defini0 information on the
subject. A voyage in tugboat to Pilot
Town and back offers apparently short
period for disposing Of such a subject,
but as Stanley wrote a book. larger and
with more pictures il it that of Living
| stone, We suppose We must accept that
tug excursion as full solution of all
the difficulties. Seeing, however, that the
sole intelligence published is derived from
the practical pilots who, Immediately
upon learning what was desired of them"
put ina written report, carefully pre-
pared" by them, it would seem the perils
Of Juggling up and down the river might
have been saved by publishing the pilots
manuscripts.
These folks constitute class whose
profession it is to find ships in trouble
and navigate them out Of their difficulties
for a con sideration. Of this class, the
Pic commissioner takes it upon himself
to say:
They are likely TO know more about the
zeal ditfic uItles than any score OF civil engi-
neers who might only pay visit OF day.
This last is an evident slap at Captain
Eads, who is the only dry land engineer
whose opportunities have been limited to
ga visit OF a day"
We propose to discuss this interview,
and to show:
1. That the outlet of the river for
twenty miles across is composed of what
the commissioner has kindly furnished a
word for, 'slush.' That this ''slush" is
uncomfortable. Of this 'sslush" the COM
missioner says
The Mississippi runs, in the last four or
five hundred miles of its course, through a
perfectly level country. the banks OF which,
even at low water. are only a few feet
above the river. These, growing lower
and lower, about fifty miles above the
mouth, cease altogether, what little land
there is being marsh in which grows |
nothing but willows and grass and which |
ID OF about the consistency of slime or |
mush. After running some little distance |
further the Father Of Waters branches out |
into five channels-Pass. "a Outre, South |
east Pass. Northeast Pass. South Pass and |
Southwest Pass-which all have run |
through this Shiny substance aud broken |
away. These are all shallow. more or less, |
and as they carry down on the water large |
quantities of this slush or mud in solution.
when it meets the clear water of the sea,
being heavier, it sinks to the bottom and
deposits, forming the bars.
We accept this description. The total
rottenness of this formation, together with
the fact that to obstruct the outlet at any
one pass is to force the river through |
some other, is shown by the following:
At Pass-a rOutre most of the vessels
which had lain at the bar for some weeks,
we're being towed out, the water having sud
1enly cut Tor itself deeper passage than
exists at Southwest Pass, which is some
;wenty four miles distant and which had
oeen Swallowed by the steamship Vandalia,
which had been lying there some three
weeks, creating shoal
We ask, if one grounded ship will effect
UGH change what will five miles of a
lam do?
2. That these innocent mariners were
Influenced either by ignorance or preju-
lice in comparing the canal with the
city. They say:
The canal if built. would be failure. 1t
uns through slush Just like the passes |
nd will open into clear sound which is
ull OF auckland and mud Jumps, which are |
INSTANTLY shifting and would afford no
nchorage at all, and not vessel could
tay here half an hour even, leaving out
together if she had to wait until she
Guild get inside. which danger, together
nth the fact that the canal would be con-
nualy filling up from quicksands, which
Guild not be kept out of the bottom of the
'cks, would render it useless, even if built. {
The foundation of the work should be
ounded by engineers, and all know that
is such a professional diagnosis alone
lat will determine its practicability. It
lay be remarked, however, that there {
ave been, for more than half a century,
yo heavy forts built on precisely the ;
lme foundation with the canal and that
ley still stand without a flaw in their
alls.
With respect to the anchorage in the ,
ny there have been, unfortunately for |
lie pilots, men upon that shore whose ,
lthority is at least equal to their own. |
ster the pacitication of 1862 the British o
overnme Mt held all the east side of the +
river, except ''the island of i
ew Orleans" For several successive '
ears the British admiralty conducted a e
survey Of the gulf shore Y
ereby acquired, and Goulds chart, pub @
she'd by the admiralty, is still an author f
Y. The soundings made in Breton bay q
ore than century since were found by n
e later examination of the United o
ates engineers unchanged. i
If, then, Buisson and Montague, Chase q
Id Howell, confirming the labors of U
ould, are to be set aside upon the con- +,
ADDICTION of persons who do not appear g
have made soundings at all, there is an n
I'd OF all authority on the subject. As n
anchorage, it has been explained by a
eneral Beauregard that the canal is an s.
'ening into harbor Of refuge, OF which b
e city of New Orleans is the base and n
e forts the protection. We maintain, i,
ION the authority quoted, that the r,
chorage in the bay is safe, and we can a
It consent that it shall be controverted | o.
less by actual soundings. This state h
,,4 &c bo ,,;Io&, |