New-York tribune., 1877-05-05
CAPT. EADS'S JETTIES.


STILL DEEPENING.
lrroM 4 STAFF CORRESPONDENT on TTIE TnmUNEl
PoR1 RADs. SoUTH PASS. MISSISSIPPI RIVER. April
25.-It Is less than two years since Capt James H.
Eads began to drive his piles and sink his willow
mattresses AT the month of South Pass When no
began work the pass little better than slug
cish bayou. AZ its entrance there was shoai WIN
about twelve feet Of water its mouth was closed Dy
"A huge mud-bar across which no craft bigger thah
fishing smack could float. and along its twelve mles
length the law current flowed with speed of less
than two miles an hour. Capt Eads said :" viii har-
ness this river and make il clear out its channel and
sweep away The bar at its mouth" The army en-
ginecrs as n class, ridicucd his project. They had
been working away with their drcdRcs at the South
West Pass for nearly half century, and had never
succeeded in keeping depth of over three or Tour
feet moro tlian nature wanted TO maintain. 1hcy
wcro not willing to admit that their system was
wrong and that there was something better
than their mud-scoops. How they fought
him In Congress everybody knows who has
felt any interest i'm his enterprise They protested
successfully against permitting him TO apply his
theories 10 the Southwest Pass-;hc main cnanneI.
through which all the shipping then came in. "lf
YOU let him tinker with that pass" they said to the
committees Of Congress he will close 10 mp, and we
shall have no way Of getting into the river Con-
grcSs believed them aud, rather to get rid OF the per
sislent civil engineer from ST. Louis than from faith
in his scheme il said 10 him i'm effect in the hil il
passcd two years ago "You may take the South
Pass il you like and do what you please with II. 1t
l. useless for commercial purposes and yon cant 90
any mischief thcrc If you get twenty feet Of water
at the bar we will pay YOU half million dollars
and make you an additional payment for every two
tect more mp 10 thirty If you fail you shall not havo
CAPT EADs's PERSISTENCE.
Can't Fads accepted the conditions. He knew
what he was about. lie had studied the Mis-
sissippi in practical way without any hobbies
The year before his bill passed ne took his chief
assistant with him and examined the principal
European rivers to find that his theory Of the
action of ietes was borne out by such constructions
at the mouths Of the Danube, the Rhine the
Maas the Oder the Vstula and many smaller
streams; that properly-consructed ictties conhnng
md accecrlting the current of a sedimcnt-bcaring
river. would cause it TO deepen its channel and 10
scour off the top of n bar at It's mouth, had been
demonstrated too often 10 be questioned. Bnt most
IF the army engineers and particularly the chief OF
the corps Gen. Humphreys, assorted that IT would
De impossible to construct jctirs at the passes OF
the Mississippi; there WAS no foundahon; the folt
mud was of unfathomablc depth, and would S"al-
low up stone as fast as il could be pat down Capt
Eads replied that me should not use stone, but would
sink flexible mattresses Of willow boughs, bound to-
prthcr that would lie Oh top Of the mud. Tie was
assured that the river would cut under his mat
trcssee from within and the sea assail them from
without and that between the two forces The Jetie'
would speedily bc destroyed lie denied tnlt this
result would follow, and the end has proved tIat
he was right. To-day There il channel across the
bar over twenty feet M depth and growing deeper
every day and there Is every reason for believing
that bv the end of another year. when the j'ftios
Il fFTrrn n
wear the bar down, the promised thirty feet will
Hc obtained. A few weeks since one of the LARGEST
ocean steamers of the Bremen line went out at this
pas, without grazing her keel Last Sunday tac
pilot assisted m taking The same vessel out at
Souu.-Nc,t Pass. where millions of dollars have
loen spent in dredging. but she stuck ON tic bar
and lies there yet these two facts settle the co"-
troycrsy between Capt. Ead> and the army cnai-
uccrs. His triumph Is complete.
There was a radical difference Of opinion between
Capt. Eads and the military men as 10 the action of
theliycr ia tahugup and dcposit.ngscdi Gen.
Humphreys and The commission of engineers that
reported u SO plan for reclaimiug tie alluyial
lands along tho Mississippi, mantalard Chat Tire
river water is uudsrchargrd with sediment, and
therefore viii not deposit auy part Of IFS burden
when 10 saCkcus its velocity, and that no relation
exists hctwcn current velocity and quantity Of srdi-
Iaeut suspended. Capt. Eals's whole project for
deepening the mouth Of the river rested upon au OPP
po.ite theory. III" held th1i thc greater the velocity
and depth Tire greater thc quantity Of sediment the
river would carry; that ITS walters were aiNar-
eager 20 pick up as much they cou'j possibly
convey, and that when th.ir speed was increased
they add "a 20 their burden by de,ou,inc the banks
and securing of the mud from tlc bed of thc
stream. II ho could increase iho velocity of the
Souh l'as, curIcut 10 four or five miles hour, ho
was confident that the rive. would by the action Of