The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1876-04-07
The Jetties as They are To-day.

The following letter has been mailed to
Mr.. Walsh. President South Pass lefty
Company:
PORT EADs, March 81, 1876.
Mr.. j. $. Walsh, President South Pass Jetty Co..
Dear Si,.-Our recent SoundinSs have
been very elaborate and embrace the entile
length of the jetty work, and extend several
hundred feet beyond them into the Gulf.
They have just been mapped out and re-
veal the following interesting and encouraS-
Z vessel drawing eighteen feet would
now encounter but two places throughout
the entire channel oyer the bar with less
than eighteen feet OF water on them ut aver
age Hood tide. The first of these is about
nine thousand feet from the upper end of
the jetties, and on it there is seventeen feet
and tivo inches, and the length OF the shoal,
measured with tho current, is not over
three hundred feet. The second shoal is
Their down and is about seven hundred feet
long. The least depth here is one inch less
than fifteen feet.
entire length OF the channel, and believe
am safe in saying that this is quite equal to
the present normal depth on Southwest
throughout four tifths of the length of the
jettieS the eighteen foot channel is at least
two hundred feet wide.
The length OF Shoal water which 4 vessel
drawing twenty feet would encounter in
passing out through the jottios is not more
than thrco thousand feet. One of tho gov
ernmcnt drcdges would cut down this shoul
i'm n week and thus open Il twenty foot
channel from the sea to the head of the Pas
SEES twelve miles above. Here there is SIX
toen feet OF water over II shoal about twen-
ty-fivc hundred feet long, through which
tho drcdgc could make twenty feet i'll II
few days.
Col. Andrews is pushing the construction
of the DETECTING dyke at this place which is
intended to remove this shoal This work
will soon be so far advanced that its effect
upon the shoal will be apparent. The sink
ing of the third tier of mattresses will be
commenced on the dyke in Il few days. The
ing. y sill OF foundation mattresses is
already sunk across its entire width, and to-
morrow second tier three feet thick will
be sunk on them.
The soundings in advance of the jettieS
are exceedingly satisfactory and fully suS-
tain the correctness of the theories upon
which the application of the ietty system
| for improving the mouth of this river is
based. Instead of the bar advancing i'll front
! OF the jettieS so contidenSly predicted by its
opposers, we actually find marked deep
eniuE of the water for several hundred feet
out i'll front of them. In some cases the
! increase is AS much as ten feet. About six
| hundred feet beyond tho ends of the west
ictty we have fifty four feet of depth where
there was but forty-four last May.
! This is not hole, as torty-tivo and fifty
| feet sundinSs arc found over a large area
within one thousand feet of tho SNQQ Ends
The storm ten or twelve Iweeksl ago was
| the seVerest even known at Is place, but
| beyond sinking u barge load of willows il
| did us no damage. CarefutNse KAN mat III
| of the works reveals no I'M urS to- hem from
/ its violence
a large amount of deposit has formed on
| the sea side of each ietty, nearly out to their
sea ends, which not only gives them greater
security but materially lessons the cost of
completing them,
Very respectfully. etc.
JAS. Il. EApS.