Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-04-15
PnoTIsG ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

pilot on the Mississippi:
Ship channels are buoyed and lighted,
and therefore it is a comparatively easy
undertaking to learn to run them; clear
water rivers, with gravel bottoms, change
their channels very gradually. and there
fore one needs to learn them but once,
but plotting becomes another matter
when you apply it to vast streams like
the Mississippi and the Missouri, whose
alluvial banks cave and change constant
ly, whose snags are always hunting up
new quarters, whose sand-bars are never
at rest, whose channels are forever dodg-
ing and Sinking, and whose distractions
must be confronted in all nights and all
weathers without the aid of single
lighthouse or a single buoy; for there
is neither light nor buoy to be found any
where in all this three or four thousand
miles Of villaipous river. Ifeel justified
in enlarging upon this great science for
the reason that / feel sure no one has
ever yet written paragraph about it
who had piloted a steamboat himself,
and SO had practical knowledge OF the
subject.
When I had learned the name and po-
sition of every visible feature of the
river; when had SO mastered its shape
that ] could shut my eyes and trace it
from st. Louis to New Orleans; when !
had learned to read the face of the 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 to them,
judged that my education was complete;
SO got to fitting my cap to the side of
and arsv n trn fcH In
mouth at the wheel. Mr. B had his
eyes on these airs. One day he said:
What is the height of that bank yon-
der, at Burgess'?"
"How can ] tell, sir? IL is three
quarters of mile away"
every poor eye--very poor. Take the
glass"
took the glass, and presently said:
81 can't tell. / suppose that that bank
is about foot and half high
"Foot and a half! That's six-foot
bank How high was the bank along
here last trip?"
Il don't know; i never noticed"
"You didn't. Well, you must always
do ii hereafter"
"Why?"
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's more water
or less in the river along here than there
was last trip"
"The leads tell me that" [ rather
thought l had the advantage of him
there.
"Yes, but suppose the leads lie? The
bank would tell you so, and then you'd
stir those leadsmen up bit. There was
a ten foot bank here last trip, and there
is only six-foot bank now. What does
that signify?"
"That the river is four feet higher
than it was last trip"
very good. Is the river rising or
falling?"
Rising"
"No, it amt" III,
81 guess / am right, sir. Yonder is
some drift-wood 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
to place where it shelves little Now
here, do you see this narrow belt of fine
sedimenty 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 points"
| SAY, ay, sir"
"Well, the water is just up to the
roots of it. You must make note of
that"
"Why9"
because that means that there's seven
| feet in the chute of 1913"
L Int 10 ttn MI
yet"
"That's where the benefit of the bank
comes in. There is water enough In 1913
noW, yet there may not be by the time we
get there; but the bank will keep us
posted all along. You don't run close
chutes on falling river, upstream, and
there are precious few that you are al.
lowed to run at all down stream. There's
law of the United States against it.
The river may be rising by the time we
get to 1O3, and in that case we'll run it.
We are drawing-how much?'
"Six feet aft-six and half forward"
"Well, you do seem to know some
thing"
But what particularly want to know
Is, IL have got to keep up an everlasting
measuring of the banks of this river,
!, 300 miles, month in and month outY"
"Of course"
My emotions were too deep for words
for while. Presently said
"And how about those chutes9 Are
there many of them?"
II should say SO. fancy we sha'n't
run any of the river this trip as you've
ever seen it run before-so to speak. If
the river begins to rise again we'll go up
behind bars that you've always seen
standing out of the river, high and dry
like the roof of house; we'll cut across
low places that you've never noticed at
all, right through the middle of bars that
cover many acres of the river; we'll
creep through cracks where you've al
ways thought was solid land; we'll dart
through the woods and leave twenty-five
miles off to one side; we'll see the hind
side of every island between New Or
| leans and Cairo"
"Then I've got to go to work and learn
| just as much more river as / already
| know
| "Jus. about twice as much more, as
near as you can come to It,"
"Well, one lives to find out. / think
| I wos a fool ,pban 7 want into th;o h,o;