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

freight, passed up inc Elvor bG u0oI moSu
high water gauge ct Carrollton, twelve feet
Eve inches, three feet below maximum.
Her rate of speed was ten miles per hour
against current Of four miles per hour
The waves of practical value were oblique
23o to her course on each side, and could be
distinctly counted to the fifteenth wave,
and added five for tho confused and irregu-
lar waves that followed. Ten of these
waves were nearly the same height, and
we're measured by their rise on q rod and q
drif,-log that did not break them. These
waves averaged about sixteen inches height
at 300 feet behind the steamer, and the re-
naming ten waves averaged less than half
that height. cay SIX inches. They were de-
liyered against the banks with the velocity
of the steamer plus the rate OF the current.
say fourteen miles per hour, or twenty feet
per second. Without attempting TO weigh
this force by computing it's dyn amics from
this data, we assume the tonnage OF the
steamer multiplied by her velocity gives
the just practical result. The tonnage OF
freia ht and vessel was about $500 tons. We
have, then, a. 600 900 pounds multiplied by
IA g seconds multiplied by l7.6O for each
mile of her travel. The aggregate force,
then, that is abnormal, ap. Led by this
steamer, amounts in foot pounds to 49,
POI 900 pounds, equal to $4,000 tons.
LET US illustrate: A levee of nine feet in
height, by the recent formula Of Humphreys
and abbott, with slopes of two and three
to one, contains 1900 cubic yards in every
100 feet OF levee. end 5000 lounds to the
cubic yard. The 800 feet of lsvee, equal to
the len 9Th OF the steamer James Howard,
would weigh 10000, 600 pounds. The force
thrown az aims: the levee or bank each trip
by the steamer passing would be 6S l6O.OO
pounds, one halt of which is 81, O80, 900
more than three times the weight Of the
whole levee.
lowing to the tenacity of the soil and
materials of the banks Of the river, these
banks co stand these forces, repeated fifty
times day under many modified FORMS
The fact that they do stand this fearful
wholly abnormal, and chargeable to the
commerce Of the Mississippi valley.
"Your committee will not pause here to
compute the forces hurled by seven thou
sand trips of steamboats, and barges, with
their 100000 tons of burden, each year.
The figures would be beyond comprehen-
sion. But we call earnestly and emphati-
cally to the attention of Congress the wear
and tear of this immense commercial servi-
tude upon the levees, which the enfeebled
efforts of depleted and ruined States have
thrown up tor their protection. For dis
tance OF over 1000 miles of river front at
flood.t time the water is at the top of the
levees and ten feet above the level
of the fields and grounds below,
where homes and women and children
dwell, where fields are bright with
promise. The lateral wave of one single
steamboat is liable at any time to wash
angry waters, and loose them upon their
remorseless mission of destruction. Along
threatened points steamers canine land for
fear of this; and in descending the stream,
for miles at times, they are obliged to shut
off steam and drift along, lest their waves
consummate the impending ruin. Here is
delay and reduction upon the commerce of
that lightly river which calls aloud to Con-
gress for rehet1
But, again. the commerce of the city of
New Orleans, with the country lying just
north of Lake POnchartrain, is suffering
and in some branches being destroyed, by
failure to close the Bonnet Care crevasse.
Lake POnchartrain lies just north of New
Orleans, and only four miles from the
heart of that great city. 1t is nearly forty
five miles long and has an average width of
twenty-five miles. Its western border is
within five miles of the Mississippi river,
and upon that border, for a distance of
some eighteen miles. runs the track of the
New Orleans. st. Louis and Chicago
railroad. Lake Ponchartrain connects
with Lake Borgne, the Mississippi sound
and the Mexican gulf. Formerly it was
most bea utiful expanse Of waters, clear and
healthful, and abounded plenteOusly with
the finest salt water fish and Oy sters, while
the invigOraiing and cooling breezes that
played over it's surface were sought each
evening during the seven summer months
of that climate by tens of thousands of the
people of that great city, and their health
~ faIf II ki,.a
limits. Across it's waters hundreds OF YES
sells were constantly passing, bringing to
market their freights of lumber, wood, tar,
turpentine, shells, MOSES, brick, sand and
lime, besides cotton and other produce.
The northern borders of the lake were
sought by hundreds during the summer
heat, and its shores were dotted with beau
tiful residences and handsome villages. But
the Bonnet Care crevasse of 1874, in April,
hurled it's angry surcharge OF turgid
waters into the lake. destroying planta-
tons, tearing up the track of the New
Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago railroad,
and euspending iEs operations for months,
at total loss to the road of some
SO, 900, 0J0. IL continued to pour the wa
ters Ut tho Mississippi river into the lake
during tho springs and early summers of
lS74-75-76. The result; is that the business
of hundreds of fishermen is broken up, for
the waters of the river have changed the
whole character of the lake, and have
oyster beds. The lake itself is rapidly FL
ing up with the sediment with which the
crevasse water is charged, and which is de-
posted, SO soon as the crevasse water is
checked, in the placid waters Of the lake.
Navigation of the lake is becoming dan.
gerOus and difficult. The trade of the
lake, which engages and employs 300 ves-
sells aud 5000 men, and supports, perhaps,
Al, 900 people, is threatens with utter ruin
The city Of New Orleans, impoverished and
almost bankrupt, has just ordered q hydro
graphic survey of the lake, for the purpose
of determining accurately the effects of
the crevasse in filing up the lake, thereby
raising the water-line and threatening to
overflow the city itself. The intermingling
of the lake and river fresh and SALT
waters is producing malarial fevers both in
city and in country, destroying the charm
of the country retreat, and making that q
curse to the city which was intended to be
one OF its chief blessings, for the lungs of
the lake now breathe disease rather than
health in the city's face.
Here, then, are evils to the commerce of
the country and to it's general welfare
which brings the relief asked for directly
within the constitutional power of Congress
to bestow.
But again. Not only is the river and
lake commerce suffering from these accu-
mutations of evil and danger, but the COM
merce by railroads in the delta is suffering.
Aud here we can not do better than extract
from the very able memorial of the New
Orleans Chamber of Commerce, prepared
by Professor Forshey, and adopted by the
Chamber. The memorial says:
Five railroads traverse this inland sea,
and every ono of these is. in it's turn,
whelmed and seriously injured by the food
waters. Within the last four years the
only railroad that led from New Orleans
northward had it's operations stopped for
months, and lost, in consequence Of the