New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-08-19

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I depth Of three feet, the Indian mounds b
, ing covered with wild animals that perishs
from starvation. The rain began early an
continued until August, making the seaso
an unusually wet one. The bottoms we,
tull of water before the Mississippi foo
! came. The highest water was Oh the Fl
teenth day of August.
There were subsequent floods III 1874
| August, in 1850 in April, in 1851 in Apr
and May, and in 1858 in July. This was
gerry great flood indeed, $500 square mile
Of the Yazoo bottom and 5000 of the S
Frsncis bottom being covered With water
In 1853 there was also flood, which wa
very high, but not SO disastrous as til
former year.
1t is fair inquiry VIVA: amount of pro
lection the owners Of property in thes
sections have received from their 1evees
The first settlers came from France, an
established themselves at NatcheZ upon tn
bluffs there, and at New Orleans. Her
| they at once found they would have L
| adopt precautions d save the infant colon,
| from inundatiOp; and in the history Of Dn
| mont it is written that NJ. De la Tour.
! royal engineer, ordered solid stone dyk,
| to be constructed in front of the place al
carly as 1907. But for want Of funds thi!
was not finished until 1927, when in the re
port OF Governor Perrier. it was announced
that the levee was $500 feet in length, with
width of eighteen feet at the top. IL two
years this commencement of The levee
system reached above the city for a
distance of eighteen miles, but it was
not so strong OF so efficient above as
latter were composed of the earth of the
banks, mere silt and detritus thrown up by
the river itself and liable to be washed
away very speedily. In 1855, when the
Mississippi colony was transferred to King
Louis, the levee extended twelve miles be.
low the city and thirty miles above. But
this was flood year. and there were SO
many crevasses, partly in consequence of
the Insufficient manner in which the banks
were made, that series OF edicts were pro-
mulgated requiring every planter to com.
plete his ievee under pain Of fOrfeiting his
lands to the crown. In this way the levees
were extended more and more. without any
system by mere individual efforts of settlers,
so that when Louisiana was coded by the
first Napoleon to our country there were
continuous levees from the lowest settle
ments south of New Orleans to the mouth
Of Red river on the vest side, and to the
nelghborhood Of Baton Rouge on the other.
And so they heightened and heightened,
until in 1874 they had crept up to the mouth
OF the Arkansas.
And in 1850 the federal government, De.
string probably to have the system COM
pleted. made grant of all the alluvial
lands south of the mouth of the Ohio to
their respective States as nuclues for fund
to reclaim them. The States of Louisiana,
Miss ssippi, Arkansas and Missouri organ.
lied offices for the sale Of these swamp
lands, and appointed commissioners for the
construction of the levees. Some recon-
mendations were then made for united
and comprehensive system of management,
as prior to that time each parish or county
had looked after its own levees. In Louis
lana the police jury had charge of the bust
ness, and in Mississippi there was q board
of levee commissioners elected by the ripar-
ian counties. Under the carpet baggers
the matter has passed into the hands OF the
State. which is manifest improvement, so
far as system is concerned. But the prac-
teal working of these men has simply been
to use it for other purposes, whose nature it
ia unnecessary to particularize.
It is obvious. then, that the levee system
was not the DIT liberate choice of American
engineers as the most thorough protection
against the Mississippi floods. We found
it. and it grew beneath our noses. And we
have seen it fall repeatedly. Southern en-
gineers have at different times suggested
other methods of protection, which may
briefly be characterized as twofold. The
first way is to modify the actual relations
existing between the acce1erating and re-
tardipg forces In the channel in such man.
uer as to enable the former to carry Off the
surplus food water without go great a rise
in the surface as they now require. This is
the system of cut offs. Secondly, it has
been proposed to reduce the maximum dis.
charge of the water by diversion. This is
the system Of artificial reservoirs and lakes
1aSc ho nfh hot
these plans base their propositions upon
The idea that the levee system, use.
less now because imperfect, would,
if thoroughly carried out, tend to
raise the bed of tho river. This
would end in an eternal strife between man
and the Mississippi. in which the latter
must be finally victorious. The idea that
liver confined to it's channel by artifcially
raised banks will elevate it's bed originated
with NJ. de Prohny, of France, and was
strongly seized upon by Culver. The for
~ actual observation on the river Pc.
although these have been proved incorrect
~ great hydraulic engineer of Italy, Lom-
,ardini, and although Humphreys and Alb
)ott, in their exhaustive report Of the Mis-
issippi, have considered the subject dis
posed of in the negative, yet there are
many who continue to affirm it, and who
|sy that while it may not be true of rivers
whose sediment is gravelly, it is true Of
hose whose waters contain vegetable silt.
While the doctors disagree upon this i'm.
,oHtant point, all admit that the present |
Of the levees is ridiculously
They are often built where
hey are not required, and they are invaria-
'ly too weak at important places. In spite !
# all the experience of the past, the levee
It Bonnet Care yields at once whenever
approached by anything like freshet. 1t |
would seem that those who are temporarily |
o charge Of the levees at different points |
re truly negligent in not strengthening the |
weak places in the bends by lateral spurs. |
Every where in European lands where man !
las endeavored TO protect fertile regions |
rom floods, the engineers have strength. |
N the Pc. at Parpanese, the most !
angerous eresions are stepped by five !
purs, which form an Obtuse angle with I
he shore. to which they are strongly Sc |
uted. They commence with base OF about |
welve gabions, made of willow twigs filed |
With earth, which sustain between their an.
les eleven gabiOns, upon which are placed |
en- more, and SO on, the number in each I
Odrse lessening gradually to the top,
where there are only four or five. Here is
N ethOd that could be employed advau. |
ageously upon the Mississippi. for here
here is nothing that can be used for the
avee save earth. There is no stone below /
'icksburg, save at Natchez, the whole i'm
1ense stretch of the banks being nothing [
ave alluvium. Down below this substance |
here is, indeed, an inexhaustible supply of |
lue aluminous clay, which would be q
cry. efficient matter for covering the front !
f the levees, as the Hollanders do with \
heir dykes of bituminous eartn. But there !
re difficulties in obtaining this which seem
lm0st insurmountable.
The system of cut-otfs has been pre-.
ounced impossible as regards the Missis.
ppi be very good Enthusiastically
[umnhra1s and Abbott. The general idea |