The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1876-03-10
Ghs 1ailgg Areus.
A Terror and Tyrant- Capt. Eads's
Proposition to Control It. 5I5as
From The Neso Orleans Bulletin.

a - ft ss 8sszsa +
From The Neso Orleans Bulletin.
If the Mississippi was thousand wards
wide and forty yards in average rdepth
flowing past this city at the rate of four
miles an hour, there would pass by as
about two hundred millions of cubic Yards
of water each hour. If only one-twentieth
part OF this water was a muddy solution
the earthly solid substance carried down
by our great river each hour would be fen
millions of cubic yards. or enough to build
an embankment five yards deem. forty
yards wide and fifty thousand yards long.
In twenty-four hours this floating real
estate would be sufficient to cover to the
depth of FIVE yards an area of 1900, 600
superficial yards.
We leave it TO our euterprising young
arithmeticians to calculate how long it
would require to raise the level Of this city
fifteen feet if all the sediment carried
down by the Mississippi could be arrested
and deposited within the boundaries of the
parish of Orleans. Or, if they choose, let
them calculate the number of acres of
land, now unavailable because .overfowed
or subject to annual overflow, which could
be raised beyond the possibility of overflow
by the deposit Of the sediment borne by
the Mississippi in the course of single
year if it could be arrested, separated and
difused. Or let them consider what the
effect would be if the Father of Waters
should cease from the task Of filing up
the Gulf of Mexico to the extent of many
square miles of surface and of great depth
each year, and leave his burden of sedi
ment on strips of land on each bank twenty
miles in width, for the period of FIVE years,
Or let them calculate the products of the
10000 aliuvial square miles of most fertile
lands which would thus be raised above
the danger of floods. -
The time will come when the earthv
burden Of the turbid Mississippi will be
turned to some good use The great in
yentor is yet to appear who will utilize the
vast weight of fertile soil that now goes on
its idle errand to the gulf. The force to
be employed Tor this purpose is the stu
pendous momentum of the greatest cur
rent that flows from any continent to the
sea. There is strength enough in the
| mighty river to propel all the engines now
used on earth. The problem to be solved
is to prescribe the method by which the
force Of the current of the Mississippi
can be applied, SO as to raise its own
| waters above the land. where being held
In tranquil suspensiont they will deposit their
sediment, and then flow off to give place
to new flood freighted with new de-
post.
The power exists in the greatest pleni-
| tude of wealthy abundance. The problem
is simply to make the force Of the mighty
current elevate small fraction of its vol
4s,,zr f~1 aI,
| The result OF successful solution of this
problem will be the arrest; deposit and
utilization OF the soil now carried uselessiy
| away to the blue waters of the gulf.
| The great engineer and inventor who
| hnds out and applies this mighty fuvial
power will be able to do almost anything
he pleases. 1t was the boast Of Michael
Angelo Buonarotti that he could hang tn
great papal cathedral, the architectural
PRIDE al Il me, in hid air. 4 man with
genius oi equal bolaness and vieor. in com
mand OF the titanic power which flows by
US perretuaity in silent majesty, would
coms'el the Mississippi TO build it own
ieyees. to raise up millions of acres Of rich
lands, elevate our city above all fear OF
Hoods. and even to set our city upon a
| bill, just as the eminent and enterprising
engineer CT the jetties has declared that he
could do with Cairo.
For two hundred years the Mississippi
has been terror and a tyraDt. but before
another century passes means will be
| found TO make its floods harmless and its
sedlmentary deposits a source of incalcul
able wealth.
lfCapt. lads proves to be the pionee.
IN this field OF invention he will win re-
nown unsurpassed by that of any discover,
er, explorer or inventor of this or any
other age.