, 1875-08-14
The Mississippi River.


most ingenious hypothesis of the Oar
winian archeologists. We invite at
te l,ion to them, only promising that
Mr.. Twain, not we, must be held re
sponsible for the correctness Of the
premises on which they are based:
Just about a generation ago. a
boat called the J. NJ. White went
from New Orleans 10 Cairo in three
days. six hours, and forty four min
Iures. Twenty Two years ago The
I Eclipse made the same trip in three,
DAYS three hours, and twenty minutes.
About five years ago the superb k.
/ 4. Lee did it in three days, and one
hour. This last is called the fastest
tip on record. | will Try TO show
that it was not. For this reason: The
distance between New Orleans and
Cairo, when the J. NJ. White ran it,
was about eleven hundred and six
miles; consequently her average spec d
was a triile over fourteen miles Ter
hour. In the EclipSe's day the dis
| tance bttween the two ports had be
come reduced TO one thousand and
eighty miles consequently her aver
aye speed was a shade under fourteen
and three eighths miles per hour.
/ In the X. h. Lee time the distance
! had diminished to about one thousand
and thirty miles 1; consequently her
average was about fourteen and one
eighth miles per hour. Therefore the
Eclip>e'> was con>piciouSly the fastest
time that has ever been made.
These dry details are OF import
ance in one particular. They give
me an opportunity of Introducing one
of the Missls>ipli's oldest pccuiari
tieS,-that of shortening It's length
from time to time. If you will throw
a long, plant apple pairing over your
shoulder, it will pretty fairly shape
Itself into an average section Of the
Mississippi River that is, the nine or
ten hundred miles stretching from
Cairo, Illinois, southward to New
Orleans, The same being wonderfully
crooked. with brief straight biz here
and there at wide intervals. The
two hundred miles stretch from Cairo
nOrthward TO ST. Louis l. by no means
so crooked, that being a rocky coun
try which the river cannot cut much.
The water cuts the alIuvial banks
OF the lower river into deep horse
shoe curves; so deep, indeed, that in
some places it you were TO get ashore
at one extremity of the horseshoe and
walk across the neck half or three
quarters of a mile, yuu could sit down
and rest couple of hours while your
steamer was coming around the long
elbow, al 4 speed of ten mics an hour,
to take you aboard again. When the
river Is .rIspg fast, some scOundrel
! whose plantation is back in the coun
/ Try, and therefore Of inferior value,
has only TO watch his chance, cut
| little gutter across the narrow neck uf
land some dark night, and turn the
water INTO it, and in a wonderfully
short time miracle has happened
to wit, tie whole Mississippi has taken
possession OF Thar little ditch, and
placed the couniryman', plantation on
its bank (quadrupIing lis value) and
thar other party's formerly valuable
plantation finds itself away ont yon
der on big island the old wafer
course around it will soon Shoal up,
boats cannot approach within ten
miles Of ii, and down goes It's value
TO a fourth Of It's former worth.
Watchers are kept on those narrow
neck>, at naedfuI times, and if man
happens 10 be caught cutting ditch
across them the chances are all against
his ever having another opportunity
To cnt ditch
Pray observe some Of the effects
of this ditclHng business Once there
was a neck opposite Port Hudson,
La, which was only half mile
across, IN It's narrowest place. You
cou d walk across there IN fifteen min.
ures but if you made the journey
around the cape on a raft, You Travelled
thirty five miles 10 accomplish the same
thing. In 1922 the river dartrd
through that neck, deserted It's Old
bed and thus shortened itself thirty
five miles. In the same way i, short
ened itself twenty. five miles al Black
Hawk Point in l699 Below Red
River Landing, Rrccourci cut off vas
made Uhnty OF forty yeas ago, |
think). This shortened the nve,
twenty eight miles. In our day. if
you travel by river from the southern.
mosi Of these three cut offs TO the
norIhernmos,, you 90 only seventy
miles. To do the same hing hun,
dred and seventy FIX Years ago, one
had To 60 hundred and fiily eight
miles "a shortening Of eighty eighr
miles in that tntling distance. At
some forgotten time in the past, cut.
offs were made above Nidaia, La: at
is and 90; at island 81; and at Hale's
Point. These shortened the river. in
the aggregate, seventy seven miles.
Since my own day on the Mi>siss-
iPpi, | am informed that cut offs have
been made at Hurricane Island at
Island 100; at Napoleon, Ark at
Walnut Berd, and at Council Bend.
| These shortened the river in the ag
gTegate, sixty seven miles. In my
own lime cut IF was made al Amer.
lean Bend, which shortened the river
ten miles or more.
Therefore, the Mississippi between
Cairo and New Orleans was twelve
hundred and fifteen miles long one