Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-03-11
THE GREAT FLOOD COMING.
A Warning 70 the DWellers in the Low
landslide SnOW-Banks OF the
Valley Melting.
The Heaviest Flow OF Water Ever
Known 1hreRteRed-WOrds Of
Warning-LOak to the
LeVeeS.
New Orleans Picayune. {

New Orleans Picayune.l
The following communication was re-
ceived yesterday from a correspondent
in Wichita, Kansas, who being person.
ally cogniZant of the facts he relates is
entitled to very grave audience. Ger
taInly the prospect as he describes it
and his statements are fully confirmed
by the news we have already received
from other sources-seems gloomy and
ominous enough. A food Of unprece-
dented magnitude is impending, and we
in the lowlands wait helplessly, almost
hopelessly, for its coming. Our cOrre-
spondent's letter will be found Of inter.
est, though not Of pleasure:
WIsHITA, KANSAS March 4, 1875.
To the Editor of the Picayune:
For three years the areas Of the whole
upper Mississippi valley and Great
Plains have suffered from seasons grow
ing more dry yearly, and eliminating
in the great drouth Of 1874, completely
destroying the crops of much Of this vast
region. Over large areas the rain. fall of
1874 was so deficient that the soil, even
of plOWed fields, was not thoroughly
moistened during the whole growing
season. This fierce drouth was followed
by prolonged autumnal rains, thorough
ly sa.uratiug the soil of all that wide
area known as the Rocky mountains
and Great Plains. These exceptionally
heavy rains being followed closely by
hard freezing weather, this great store
of moisture was securely locked in the
frozen earth to pass off in spring and
summer evaporation, thus insuring a
summer atmosphere surcharged with
moisture, which will be precipitated
upon our fields during the COM
ing season, and promising us abun-
dant harvests, but the end is
not yet. On this frozen earth, complete
ly saturated as it is, there has, this win
ter, fallen over this whole area Of noun
tain aud plain, far greater depth of
snow than has been known since the
advent of the white man, and aUe must
prepare for one Of the greatest floods an
all the streams draining this region, e.r-
perienced since the memorable gear Of
1S44. The gradually decreasing rainfall
OF the past three years in the upper Mis-
sissippi valley, logically followed the
annually decreasing fall OF snow on the
higher sltitudes of the plains and noun
tains. Now, however, all this region,
from the Arkansas to the Saskatchewan,
has deeper snow covering than ever
before known. For instance, on the
foothills in Colorado the average depth
of snow, six weeks since, Wss ever five
feet, and from twenty to thirty feet deep
on the higher slopes. On the Laramie
plains, same date, the depth was thirty
inches, while in Montana all the lower
mountains were wholly impassable, and
the snow has, since the date named,
been falling almost constantly in those
regions, and the amount of snow
now lying upon these higher
slopes may now be double the
measurement named. All the water
locked in these enormous snow-banks
must nsss off bv ~t10aLI!s uralnlng thiS
region, or by evaporation, which will
load the atmosphere of this whole upper
Mississippi valley with moisture, which
condensing, will fall in rain, to further
swell streams already bursting from
their banks with water derived directly
from the melting snow. Converging, as
ali the streams do, they will attempt to
pour these resistless torrents through
the morrow channel of the Mississippi,
and it is well to ask what will be the
consequence to the dwellers of farm and
town on the lower lands bordering that
stream. II The floods Of 1874 were dis
astrous, what will be the effect of those
of 1875, if early and thorough prepars.
tions are net made to meet them?
c. WOOD DAVIS.
A DIsCoURAGING PRosPECT.
New Orleans Bulletin.l
That we are to be visited by high
water during the spring-a disastrous
flood-seems decidedly More than proba-
BILE. The heavy rain and snow storms
which have prevailed throughout the
west and northwest lately admOnish us
Of an immense flow Of water through the
Mississippi during the spring, and with
many OF our levees demolished, and
those standing in a weak and unreliable
condition, there is in view nothing less
than an utter devastation of the most
fruitful regions Of our State. A sickly
picture will we present after this i'm
pending flood shall have taken from the
already impoverished toilers ofone-third
OF the State the last vestige of that little
which now remains to them in the way
Of property. 1t is very patriotic
in our Democratic and Conserv-
ative friends in the State, and
touching to behold them battling orator
icaly for our political ameliOration, but
rather discOuraging to know that mean
time they are letting our material inter-
ests drift placidly into the Gulf stream.
1t appears to us that IL half the energy
e4p6Dueu ny OuI uoleSStcsi HAo nave
been working to effect what they are
pleased to term compromise, had been
directed to urging the necessities Of an
appropriation for the building of levees,
the necessary funds to provide against
the certain ruin now staring us in the
face would now be forthcoming, and they
would secure the lasting gratitude of a
people who, we fear, for the benefits to
be derived by the so-cslled adjustment,
will never have occasion to offer a word
of praise for the eueTgiUs expended.