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

these natural and artificial drains and
highways, there are such an infinite
number of transverse canals, connecting
the Mississippi with it's lateral tributa-
ries, that steamer drawing five feet
without crossing its own path could
traverse three or four thousand miles Of
navigable waters. The canal that con-
meets Hushpuckenny bayou [itseIf, in
my judgment, excayated originally BY
the mound-builders) with another, and
with the Mississippi, passes through the
plantation of the late Hon. Andrew ].
DonelsOn. 1t is perfectly straight for
ten miles, there is a perfectly defined
tOwPath upon its western bank, and
mounds and fortified strongholds every
where on either side of the perfect canal.
What barbarians are we to close these
endless drains and cheapest agencies of
commerce and of perfect irrigation by
means of earthen walls costing incalcu-
Liable sums and aggravating the very
evils they are designed to remedy. If in
telligent explorations were made, and
map of so-calIed "bayous" prepared con-
Meeting the Mississippi with lateral
streams, from the Missouri to the gulf,
we would find that this great valley was
once drained By perfect system of engi-
neering skill, that these canals and lakes
were so planned, and SO enlarged and
lessened or multiplied, that however
great the volume of the sprngtime food
tide of the mighty river, it was subdi-
vided and distributed everywhere over
these rich alluvial plains. Their PrOdue-
tive capacity was thus renewed each
year, and mound building cotton and
wheat growers never beheld their fields
behind earthen walls grow red, or yell
low, and shriveled for want of loan de-
posted each year by the murky water
that brings inexhaustible riches from re-
mote hills and valleys and mountains.
One hundred and forty natural and
artificial drains, or "bayous," once re-
ieved the Mississippi of superintendent
water on its western side, between. the
mouth, of the Arkansas and New Orleans.
When the melting SHOWS filed the chan
mel of the great river, gateways were
opened from Cape Girardeau to the sea,
and many great canals, one after another,
were filed. Shallow streams of regulated
depth, as by Egyptians in days of yOre,
were diffused over cultivated fields, and
not only we're disasters impossible, but
the floods we deem so ruinOus were
Sources of incalculable riches to primeval
dwellers of the lOWlands. Red river
then had an outlet, now TeOpened to Der
wick's bay, and those who have traVersed
Texas state that a great ditch, still
clearly defined, in bygone age connected
Red river with the Trinity. The time
will come when the Missouri will be con-
nected with the Arkansas, and this stream
through Bayou Bartholomew with Red
river, and the latter will become part of
the Atchafalaya, entering the Gulf of
Mexico, A ship canal will connect Lake
Michigan with the Illinois, and an mex
haustible water supply through locks
and dams be given the rivers of this val
ley. Steamships and the largest sailing
vessels drawn through such canal by
locomotives ON its towing paths win con-
meet New Orleans directly with the Gulf
of Mexico. American railways viii bear
the whole cOuntry's wealth toward cities
on the Mississippi and its tributaries, and
the river itself become the. highway of
nations and its valley the central seat of
American empire.