The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-05-23

Abstract of a Lecture Delivered by Gen.
eral william y. smith.

The following is an abstract OF a lecture
delivered by General William Sooy Smith
last Monday evening in haywood, on 1.-The
Deltas of the Mississippi and Eads's Jetties:"
Some one has aptly called drop of water
natures hod-carrier." Way up in the
Rocky mountains this busy little laborer
is at work with his partner frost, quietly
disintegrating the rock. Then off he starts
with the chips and filings of his mighty
workshop bearing them in his hod to the
Gulf of Mexico. There he undergoes a
change we will not misname it DEATH and
is lifted to the skies and waited back by the
breeze to the Businesses of the mountains
again to bring down another load. And so
the mighty river has been bearing down to
the sea its enormous load of detritus, and
has been building out the shore line until it
has advanced as it now seems from Cairo to
the present shore of the gulf.
The river reaches the gulf with load
amounting to a volume which, il is esti-
mated, will cover each year one square mile
two hundred and sixty-eight feet deep.
The shore line at the mouth of the river.
for distance of six miles, is advanced at
rate which is estimated at from 100 to 200
feet per annum. In this way long spit of
land is projected into the gulf. When the
resistance to the flow through the newly
found channel becomes too great, the river
quietly turns aside and reaches the waters of
the gulf by short lateral cut. 1t then pro-
iects another point of land into the gulf on
its new line of direction. The angles be-
tween these points of land are then filled by
deposits from the overflow and by the dig
ging action of the gulf, which throws sand
up between them, and thus the general shore
line is advanced. When these angles are
not wholly filed lakes are formed, and so
we have such lakes as those which lie back
of New Orleans. Sometimes nature returns
to her unfinished work and
FILLS UP THESE LAKES,
as she is now doing through the Bonet CAIRO
crevasse IA miles above New Orleans The
water flowing through this crevasse now
amounts to one.tenth of the whole volume
of the river, and the detritus borne by into
the lakes just named will eventually fill
| them up unless the crevasSe is closed up.
AS the water escapes from the river and
| spreads out over the adjacent bottom lands,
the current slackens and the solid materials
held liz suspension are deposited; the water
becomes clearer and clearer as it proceeds
and has less and less load to drop. And so
the land is built up higher next to the river
bank than it il farther back, and the river
flows along a ridge. 1t so happens, as many
of you know, that the city of New Orleans
stands upon site lower than the surface of
the water in the river.
In view of the facts here presented, the
difficulties surrounding the attempts to inn
prove the mouth of the Mississippi river
become apparent. To compel the water it.
self to cut deep channel and main tain it
| through the deposit constantly making at its
mouth the channel-way has 70 be com.
pressed. This compression increases the re-
! sistance to the flow of the water and so
| strengthens the tendency of the river to
| break out through a lateral cut, as already
| described. And to resist this tendency it
must be remembered that there are no high,
permanent banks for many miles from the
mouth of the stream
| AS they appeared the other day, do not
think they were more than one foot in
| height. The resistance to the outflow be-
| tween the ietties also diminishes the rate of
current of the water flowing into the chan
mel between them, and this causes deposit
| at the head of the jetties. From the same
| cause an increased flow of water through the
| Southwest pass, and through Pass 0utre was
| produced, and to prevent a deepening OF
| these chsnnels, stills have been laid across
their beds consisting of
MATTRESSES OF BRUSH
These mattresses are made on a platform
sloping into the river by first laying down a
| light framework of timber, held together by
pins about three feet in length. Willow
brush is then filled in between these pins,
and closely compressed. Another frame is
then placed on top corresponding with the
Il
| pins which pass up through the top timbers.
| A tug-boat then comes alongside, and pulls
the mattress into the water, and lows it out
to its place in the jetty. Here there is a
line OF guide piles, to which the mattress
is attached, and sunk by loading it with
stone. Another mattress is then sunk on
| top OF this by loading it with stone in the
j same way, the second mattress being laid
back upon the edge of the one first sunk.
Mattress after mattress is sunk in the same
way until the jetty is brought to the surface.
| 1t will thus be seen that the jetty is built
with sloping face next to the river. AS
the mattresses are sunk they catch the mud
and sand carried by the stream and are soon
| imbedded, so that it is hoped they will not
be attacked by the ship worm which is very
destructive to wood work exposed in the VII
| cinity of the rivers mouth.
| Notwithstanding all the difficulties sur
| rounding the jetty project, it has thus far
| accomplished very valuable results deepen
| ing the water on the bar at the mouth OF
the South pass from seven and one half to 81
/ feet
II is said that bar is forming at the
mouth of this pass, semi-circular in form,
/ with radius of about 900 feet not contin-
uous, but having deep and shallow parts. II
a vessel strikes deep part Of the bar she
passes in all right; if she strikes shoal part
| of the bar she sticks. ~
| OF course we all hope the jetty project
may be a grand success, and we can not but
admire the pluck of Captain Eads, who has
undertaken to carry it through, and staked
his fortune and reputation upon the result
A new cement for glassware has been dis
covered by Professor Schwartz, which is said
| to have the quality of being unaffected by
| boiling water. 1t is also free from another
| Objectionable feature of china and glass ce
ments. as it does not dis6gure by dark line