New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-28


30l4 feet; maximum depths 10 and seventy
nine feet; mean depth sixty -four and fifty.
four feet; sectional areas 1874 653 and l6i. ICY
SQUARE feet; high water width $3.50 and 1910
| feet. Sections four and five (taken below
| the crevasse) gave the following dimensions
| respectively: Widths, low water, 2406 feet
and 2456 feet; maximum depths sixty-twO
and sixty-fOur feet; mean. depth forty and
forty-tw0 feet; sectional areas 96.64O and
LOG, $50 square feet high water width $500
and 1880 feet. The average dimensions Of
| the two upper and the two lower sections
were as fOllows: Low water Widths, 1850
| and 2429 feet; depths, SO and 4l.65 feet;
sectional areas, l74.4l0 and l0l 1895 feet.
Reduction of channel below average of
upper and lower sections in width, at low
| water, 52l feet; IN depth, average Of whole
sections or mean depth, IL .35 feet; in area
| of channel section, 70, OILS feet-equare feet.
| The mean high water sectional area above
was 232 O03 square feet, and below l56, 9l3
square feet; reduction below, $4,000 square
feet. The bottom or the river
bed, when the upper sections were taken,
consisted of firm blue clay, into which the
eleven pound sounding lead sunk from one
to two inches only all the way across, while
the depths were tOlerably uniform, all in
sions free from deposits. The bottom,
when both the lower sections were
| taken, was o soft OOzy mud or silt,
into which the sounding lead sunk
! from one to two feet, except near the
| left bank where the current was strongest J,
on the bend side of the river, where
| the bottom was alsO firm clay aud free
| from deposits. Opposite the lower sections
| tie sand bar on the right bank side had en-
| crOached upon the channel SO much that
| the low water width had been reduced
more than 500 feet, and a new sandy ridge,
| evidently Q deposit made during the pre-
| cedinx high water from twelve to fifteen
| feet high at its lower end, had been formed
| above the low water line and over the old
] bar, in direction parallel with the thread
| of the current, from the river above into
| the outlet opening. Very extensive new
| deposits of sand had been made in the right
bank bend next below, several feet high
| above low water, and extending several
| hundred feet out from the shore line; these
were known to be new. Everything, the
new sand bars and sandy deposits, the new,
oozy mud or silly deposits, extending
nearly across the river channel below the
| outlet, and the very great reduction OF
| channel way below caused thereby, lndi.
Gated most unmistakably that this Bonnet
Care orevasse outlet of 1874 did cause a
| partial filing up of the river below" The
experiments and observations of Mr.. Bay
| lev leave no room to doubt the fact that
| the Gre vases Of the Mississippi river swift
| " and directly opera-e the formation of
| bars in the river below their point of
outlet. He cites also the effect of outlets
upon Red river, and especially the outlet
| known as Tones Bayou, some twenty miles
below the city of Shreveport.
In twenty-five years this bayou, which,
when cleared out, was an insignificant out
| let, has increased its sectional area to 5000
| feet, while that of the main river below it
has been reduced to $500 equare feet; it's
| depth has decreased fifteen feet, and it's
| channel has been contracted some 300 feet.
An official report confirms Mr.. Bay g
statements and attributes the decrease in
area, width and depth, to the outlet above,
switch has BEEN" says the report, ''con-
stantly enlarging"
Mr.. Bayley concludes that '.the same law
governs IN all sedimenta-y rivers, whether
small or great. The first effect Of an out
| let is to lower the food line OF q river, be-
cause time is required to re-adjust the
rivers regimen; but the ultimate effect the
reverse because the law is that the less the
quantity of water flowing, the greater is
the slope required for its discharge at a
given velocity"
Your committee conclude that there is
| no doubt but that the crevasses OF the Mis-
| sissipp; river are forming bars constantly
MERGE of the river. and that if the theories
upon which they base their conclusions be
| true, the outlets, if not closed, will deepen
and widen, and the bars will grow and the
| distractions become more and more serious
until the commercial interests of the great
river will utter cry for relief that Congress
| will be obliged to heed.
| But again, the commerce of the Mis-
sissippi has suffered and is suffer
| inn oil nf a
and the unsafe condition of the levees that
| still stand. The crevasses, some of which
| are half mile wide aud seventy feet deep
| at the point where they leave the river
| channel. create tremendous suck from the
very centre of the river. Into this mael-
strom hatbOats, rats, barges and trading
boats are constantly drawn and destroyed.
The powerful steamer, in day time, passes
| them in safety; at night, however, and when
the weather is not clear land dense fogs
| are of very frequent occurrence on the
Mississippi river) the steamer is obliged to
| tie up and wait for daylight or the lifting
of the fog. to pass the dangerous crevasse.
Steamers have been lost and others have
been damaged by being sucked into these
dangerous outlets. The steamer Katie, one
OF the largest and finest steamers on the
vortex Of Bonnet Care. within a
few weeks past, and, with her hun
dreds Of lives and 1000 bales of cot
ton, came near being lost. She saved her
self with her powerful anchors. and was
only pulled from her peril by tugs sent
from New Orleans for that purpose. Other
instances are well known Of the total loss
| and destruction of steamboats, in this way.
But, again, the transportation and de
livery of freight, mails and passengers is
constantly retarded and hindered in food
season for lack of safe levees. When the
angry volume of waters has risen to q level
| with the frail embankment, steamers. for
many miles, can not land for fear of break
| ing tha levee. or that the waves made by
| their motion may wash over and dissolve
them. Hence they are obliged to carry
i treights and passengers miles away to some
| safer point, and land them very far from
their destination. To the superficial obser-
yer the danger to q levee from waves Gre
ated by a passing steamer might seem
| frivolous. But the exact force and might
| Of these waves, influenced by the motion of
the steamboat, have been measured and as
| certained. We quote now from a report of
| the special committee on the Mississippi
levees, made by the Forty third Congress,
| and prepared by Mr.. M0rey, now member
| OF this committee:
1.-THE claim of the inhabitants of the
delta for national aid rests upon much
| stronger grounds than mere prospective
| revenues and productions. These claims
come in the form Of reclamation. They are
based upon the perpetual and ever-increas-
ing attack upon the levees by the passing
commerce of twenty-six States and Terri
tories of the Union. The steam
| ers that transport this commerce send their
waves ceaselessly against banks and levees,
| flashing and abrading them with tremen-
dous power. The Lower Mississippi rarely
rests. One series OF waves succeed another,
and each wave finds it's rest in the equiva-
lent of it's fOrce transferred to the banks
and channel Of the river. These lashings