Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-09-10

possesses more of real grandeur than a
great flood in the lower valley Of the Mis-
slssippi. 1t rarely or never comes like
sudden TACT of God" on a quick rise in
smaller streams taking its victims by sur
prise and overwhelming them before they
have recovered from their FIRST shock of
panic, but most frequently starts thousand
miles off along the water. she'd TO the south
of the great lakes. 1t travels hardly more
than five or six miles an hour, and its
threatened coming is announced days be-
fore its arrival. lis progress is watched Ivy
vigilant sentinels at every station along
the route as the progress of n cumbersome
and slowly advancing army by scouts, and
the planters await lis approach with much
OF the nerve and disciplined calmness with
which defensive army awaits assault.
They sci their places in order. remove all
movable property from exposed positions,
strengthen their earthworks, bikes aud
barriers, and prepare as best they may to
thwart, 10 shut out and defeat the Hood.
The fresbets which recently made such
havoc along tue streams of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois and Missouri have been forgotten
by nearly everybody, except the farmers
and villagers who have the best of re lsons
for remembering them. The lowland
planters are now surrounded by the danger
for which they began TO prepare when
those freshets were announced, and ii is in
large measure due to tho timeliness and ac-
curacy of the warnings which they have
received from day to day that they have
escaped as lightly as they have. The sys-
tenn through which those warnings are
given is well worth some study.
1t should be stated at the outset that
dangerous freshets in the lower Mississippi
rarely come from one source alone. A rise
in the Ohio may be Offset by a fall in the
Missouri, or in the Mississippi above Cairo;
or If there is II rise in one OF these rivers
while the others are. stationary, its effect
may he lost or greatly diminished by eva
poration, absorption or overflow, before IL
reaches Memphis and Vicksburg. More
over, formidable freshet coming from
Cairo needs the reinforcement of flood
waters from the Arkansas, Red aud other
tributaries of the lower Mississippi to make
its disastrous effects complete. 1t is ne
cesssary therefore that correct information
be had of the condition OF most of the i'm
portant rivers in the Mississippi basin be-
fore trustworthy estimate can be made of
the proportions which threaten ed flood in
the lower valley is likely TO assume. For
the collection of such information signal
stations are established at all the PRINCIPAL
river towns, whence daily reports of the
rivers are sent, from which each observer
may gather with tolerable accuracy what
rise or fall of water is likely TO occur at his
station, aud the Signal Office at Washing
ton is enabled to issue, when necessary,
daily bulletins ofriver probabilities, giving
warning where dangerous floods are
thre alened and assurance where there need
be no apprehension OF danger. For in
stance, if the observer at Cincinnati re-
ports dangerous Use in the Ohio, while
the signal sergeant at ST. Louis simultane-
ously reports a rapid and steady fall in the
Miss issipri, the river country between
Cinci matt and Cairo would lie warned to
pre- pare for high wafer, but the country
alo ng the Mississippi, below Cairo, would
not have great cause to anticipate trouble.
BY Il Dangerous flood in these reports
is meant one which may be expected to
destroy crops or other property along the
river. At every river station u guage is
Kept for measuring the rise and fall of the
river, the zero mark frequently, though
not necessarily, being the low-water mark
OF the year wherein the river was lowest,
and the danger mark Of the guage being
the height at which the river floods
the adjacent country. Thus, at ST. Louis
NIn 4.
1873, and the danger point " is thirty feet
above zero, at which height "the water
commences 10 damage buildings in the
city. Any sudden rise endangers merchan-
disc on levee."
The zero mark Of the Cairo guage is the
low-water mark of 1871, and the danger
point is fort lone feet higher. With these
simple Tut invaluable arrangements for
observing the fluctuations of the Mississip-
pi and its tributaries, nothing but expert
ence which is every year growing better, OF
the rate at which nood-waves of different
heights travel and of the extent to which
given rise at one point will affect the volume
of the river below, is needed TO enable The
Signal Office TO foretell accurately the time
at which dangerous floods will occur in the
10 wer valley, the heights TO which,they will
rise and the areas Of farm lands which will
be threatened with inundation.
Bnt after the best warnings have been
given that it is possible TO give, great de-
struction of property is unavoidable when
a heavy freshet occurs at this season of the
year; though unless the accounts which
come from the Northwest were greatly ex-
aggerated, the lowland planters will have
suffer Ell less by the time the river returns
10 its ordinary bounds than the Western
grain-growers lost by their sudden drench-
ing. As soon as it was known that freshet
was coming down the river from Cairo,
the planters began TO prepare for it, and
probably had ample time for making all
preparations that were worth the making.
(The estimate now is that hardly more
than zen thousand bales Of cotton will be
lost.) Broken levees were at once dill
gently repaired, new ones built in some
places, and all of them closely watched, as
the river rose, by great numbers of men
ready for any emergency, and under, strict
military discipline. The enemies against
whose incursions they stand guard are OF
two kinds. fthe leveo should give way
at any point the gap must be quickly filled
up, and for this purpose thousands Of gun
ny sacks are kept ready to be packed with
earth and dumped into the breach. If the
river threatens to rise above the top of the
levee, the levee must, II possible, be built
up higher pdri pGssu with the rise of the
river, and for the certain performance of
such work in the face of such an enemy as