Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-06

Extent Of the Damage Done by the
Overflow i'm Mississippi, Louisians
and Arkansas-Less i'm Cotton. 500,
600 Bales; I'm Sugar, 10000 Hogs
heads
New Orleans Picayune, Maya.
We give in this mornings Picayun,
a view of the overlooked districts along
the Mississippi, situated In the three
States of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Arkansas. This map can tell much Of
the story of the suffering, want and
ruin this unexpected food has produced
far better than we. Yet, even the map
conveys not the whole truth of the mis-
cry In this State to stranger. 1t on.
ly appears that quarter of Louisiana
and large portion of Arkansas and
Mississippi are under water, they know
not that the parishes under water con-
tain two-thirds of the wealth, the popu-
lation, the industry and the produce of
the State.
Of the ffty-three parishes of the
State, thirty-one are partially OF 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,
labcring or producing population of
the State-upon whom not only New
Orleans is dependent, and also the
North and Europe itself for clothing
and supplies.
The lands overlooked are calculated
at about 100000 acres, about one.
fourth Of which was under cultivation
IN corn, cotton, and sugar when the
food 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 trans.
formed the whole Yazoo Valley into an
inland lake.
Along the Amite, from its source in
Mississippi to Lake Pontchartrain, the
lowlands are all under water, washing
out poor but industrious class of peo-
pie, almost all white.
The Pearl River overflow is more Of
freshet than food; the rains alone
are answerable for it. The bridges be-
tween New Orleans and the North have
been washed away, and the saw mills
along that stream, that supplied New
Orleans and the Southwest with lum-
Der, have suffered great deal.
In Arkansas, although the Chicot
and st. Francis crevasses cover some
100000 acres, yet they have not
caused such loss as In other parts of
the country, as, for instance, the Qua
chita and Black river bottoms. Here
the condition is most frightfully ap-
palling, with little chance of relief for
months to come. For over two hun
bred miles the Ouachita has spread out
its stream to from ten to fifty miles
wide. When the inhabitants fed to
the back lands with their property,
they encountered the waters flowing
from the Mississippi crevasses. Thus
between two floods, their only refuge
was the hOusetops, where they are now
living, having lost their cattle, their
clothing, even their power to work.
The four great cotton parishes of
Madison, Tensas, Concordia and Car
roll, are filed by quite a number OF
crevasses at Bass, quarter of mile
wide, Point Lookout, Hard Times,
Buck Ridge, Glasscock, half a mile
wide; all of them averaging seven feet
in depth, and opening the country
to an artificial river two miles in
width.
Just below the mouth of Red River
occur the two most murderous crew.
asses in the State, the Morganza
and Hickey. The Morganza, near
ly a mile wide, running at the rate
of three and half miles an hour; the
Hickey, third of a mile in width, ten
feet deep, and pouring in at the rate of
nine and half miles an hour. After
covering the river front parishes of
Point Coupee, West Baton Rouge, and
Ibervilie, the water from the crevasses
swelled the Atchfalaya, Lafourche and
Teche to such volume as to overflow
every parish on its course to the sea,
st. Landry, Bafourche. Lafayette, Ter
TebOnne, st. Mary, and others. Here
the waters deal double destruction,
overfowing the richest alluYial country
in the world, and destroying one-third
of the sugar crop Of the State. Back
of the banks dwell the small settlers,
Cadiens, and others, who are dependent
on their hunting, and the products of
their fields and their cattle for support
from day to day. Several lives have
been lost here; those who remain are
crying for food and clothing.
Below New Orleans, in Plaquemines,
almost the whole country has been
inundated.
To sum up the food from Memphis
to the Passes, the crevasses are over
fifty miles in width. Through them
flow streams greater and more powerful
thon the mighty Mississippi itself, and
which pour out on this devoted country
2,000,000,000 cubic feet of water every
hour. Not only is this ater thrown
on the land, but it must find its way to
the sea through six hundred miles of
low alluvial lands. 1t is not hyperbole,
then, to say that the Mississippi is
wider now than the far-famed Amazon,
whose mouth is two hundred and fifty