The weekly echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1868-1876, 1876-04-13

Their Utattv.
A correspondent Of the Austin (Texas)
stylus gives the following account Of
some Of the antiquities Of the Mississippi
valley:
Humboldt tells that in forgotten
age, and by forgotten race, a canalwas
dug across the Isthmus of Darien, and
unmistakable traces of its whole length,
bridging with water the narrow neck Of
land that separates the two oceans. And
vet how we have boosted Of modern pro
gress and modern daring, and modern
genius for tasks which modern vanity
has pronounced superhUman. The pro-
pOsition-supposed not long ago to be
wholly new-to construct canals con-
Meeting rivers of this magnificent valley
with one another, and with the great
lakes and Mexican gulf, was partially
effected by a race of men older than Cy-
rus or Solomon or Sesostris.
Just below Cape Girardeau, Mo-,
there is a deep fosse more than one hun
dred feet wide. 1t extended in an I'M
known period in the worlds history
westwardly to the waters of White and st.
Francis rivers. Its obvious purpose was
the diversion ola large volume Of the SUI
perabundant water of the Mississippi into
smaller tributary streams. At intervals
of twenty or thirty miles other canals,
still plainly defined, parallel with the
first, and in many places filed with wa
ter, and designed to lessen the foOd tide
of the mighty river, render floods harm
less, and irrigate rich alluvial fields, ira
verse the Iowlands. The earthquake of
1911 and 1912 moved across the country
from east to west and upheaved the
countrv's surface as does a tempest the
oceans pillows. After the CONFUSION,
the lOwIands of the Mississippi west of
Cairo and New Madrid we're broken in
ridges as if the waves of the sea, in the
midst Of violent storm, had been sud
denly frozen. BY the cOnvulsion Of ma
ture these canals were broken, and for the
first time since the days of David and
Solomon, or Sesostris, when they were
dug, became useless. Ihaye traced these
ancient canals many miles. Probably
they were not designed to render calami-
ties, such as now desOlate rich planta-
tiOus from Cairo to the sea, impossible,
but the internal commerce of wide dis
tricts, and of dense and mighty pOpula-
lions, by means of these highways, was
most cheapIy conducted. For long dis
tances towing paths little above the
bank of these canals may be plainly dis
cerned, and not far from OsceOla, Ark,
brick abutments off bridge, thatspanned
a canal, have been unearthed. In many
places there are agUadas, or artificial
lakes paved with adobe, and along these
canals, as everywhere along the Missis-
;sippi, there are countless earthern Milo
meters, like those of stone at the base of
the pyramids of Egypt and along the
banks of the Euphrates, designed to mark
each year the highest of successive
floods. m.r
Artificial lakes were constructed, per-
haps as fish ponds, or designed to sub
serve purposes of reservoirs dug by
Egyptian monarchs. From these, and
from canals opened by Egypt's wisest
masters, farms, during the hot summer
months, were irrigated. Herodotus tells
and Napoleon the Great, in his con-
versations at st. Helena, repeated the as
sertion7-that after these canals were dug,
the failure of crops in Egypt was rem
dered wholly impossible. There was
hardly need for guano when foodgates
of countless canals might be opened and
broad plantations submerged and COW
cred with loan, as indispensable to sue
Cessful cotton culture in this valley as
rotations of crops on the rugged hillsides
of Georgia or Connecticut. Each plant
er of to-day in the lowlands would glad
ly lose one crop in seven, thata layer of
alluvium left by an overflow may enrich
his fields. How wise were they who, in
a forgotten age, not only created for
themselves by means of these canals the
cheapest possible agencies Of transporta-
ton, but renewed each year the soil that
gave such wonderful harvests and sup