The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-04-23
eMisrrHanrnn.s.
Old Times on the Mississippi.

Old Times on the Mississippi.
WhosOever has done me the courtesy
to read my chapters which have proceed
ed this may possibly wonder that | deal
so minutely with plotting as science.
1t was the prime purpose of these arti-
cles; and | am not done yet. | wish to
show, in the most patient and pains-tak-
ing way, what a wonderful science it is.
Ship canals are buoyed and lighted, and
therefore it is a comparatively easy un-
dertaking to learn to run them; clear
water rivers, with gravel bottoms. change
their channels very gradually. and
therefore ore needs to learn them but
once; but plotting becomes another mat
ter when you apply it to vast streams
like the Mississippi and Missouri, whose
alluvial banks cave and change continu-
ally, whose snags are always hunting up
new quarters, whose sand bars are never
at rest, whose channels are forever dodg-
ing and shirking, and whose obstrue-
tions must be confronted in all nights and
In all weathers without the aid of sin
gle lighthouse or single buoy; for there
is neither light nor buoy to be found
anywhere in all this three or four thou
sand miles of villainous river. / feel
iurtified in enlarging upon this great sci
ence for the reason that feel sure that
no one has ever yet written a paragraph
about it who had ever piloted steam
boat himself, and SO had a practical
knowledge of the subject. If the theme
were haokneyed, should be obliged to
deal gently with the reader, but since it
is wholly new, feel at liberty to take
up n considerable degree of room with
it.
When had learned tl.e nuIiic and po-
sition of every visible feature of the riv
er; when | had so mastered IFS shape
that could shut my eyes and trace il
from St Louis to New Orleans; when !
had learned to read the face Of iIl,, water
as one would Gull the news from the
morning paper; and, finally, when had
trained my dull memory to treasure up
an endless array of soundings and cross
ing marks, and keep fast hold of them
| Judged that my education was com
plete; so l got 10 tilting my cap to the
side of my head, and wearing tooth
pick in my mouth at the wheel. Mr..
II L. l.. a
day he said;
"What Is the hight of that bank yon
der at Burgess2'
"How can tell. sir2 II is three quar
tiers Of Il mile away"
Very poor cye-very poor. Take
the glass"
took the glass, and presently said:
81 can't tell. suppose that that bunk
is about foot and ii half high"
Foot and halfl That's six foot
bank. How high was tine bank along
here the last tripF
81 don't know; never noticed
lyon didn'tl Well you must nlway
do it hereafter"
''Why2"
because you'll have to know good
many things that it tells you. For one
thing, it tells you the stage of the river
tells you whether there is more or less
in the river along here than there WAS
last trip"
''The leads tell me that" | rather
thought | lad the advantage Of him
there.
Eyes, but suppose the leads liel The
bank would tell you so, and then you'd
stir those leadsmen up a bit. There was
ten-foot bank here last trip, and there
is only a six foot bank now. What does
that signifyl"
That the river was four feet higher
than it was last trip"
very good. Is the river rising or fall
ing?'
Rising"
"No it amt"
Il guess | am right, sir. Yonder is
some driftwood floating down the
stream"
"a rise starts the drift-wood, but then
it keeps on floating awhile after the river
is done rising. Now the bank will tell
you about this. Wait till you come 10 a
place where it shelves little. Now here,
do you see this narrow belt of fine sedi-
mentl That was deposited while the
water was higher. You see the drift
wood begins to strand, too. The bank
helps in other ways. Do you see that
stump on the false pointI'
"Ay, ay, sir"
"Well, the water is just up to the roots
of it. We must make a note of that"
"Whyr'
| Because that means that there's sev-
Ell feet in the chute of lOS."
''But 1os is long way up the river
YETI
That's where the benefit of the bank
comes in. There is water enough in 1O3
nO1o, yet there may not be by the time
we get there; but the bank will keep us
posted all alcng. You don't run close
chutes on falling river, up stream, and
there are precious few of them you are al.
lowed to run at all down stream. There
is IA law of the United States against it.
The river might be rising by the time We
get 10 103, and in that case We'll run it.
We are drawing-how muchf"