The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-05-04
THE RIVER.
Movements Of Boats at
this Point.
The Barge System and its
Advantages.
PeculiaritieE of the River Common.
ted upon.

|
for boating purposes.
A number of raft boats passed the city
during the day. Among the number were
the Park Painter going up, and kthe A.
| Rieting coming coming down with raft
in tow,
The Viola is doing good business be
tween the city and points above.
The Mary Morton is expected down to-
night.
The Josie and Arkansas are due from
below tomorrow.
The different boats have not yet been
placed on regular trips and some difficulty
is experienced in starting them out so as
to make boats up and down every other
day, 1t is thought however that the plan
can be worked at no distant day
WONDERFUL RIVER
This Mississippi is a wonderful river, say
Mr.. Bonvard and, although have travelled
through the four quarters of the globe,
have never seen its com1peer, The Nile,
so famous in history, is insignificant in
comparison. The Mississippi is sui
generis 1t restless current is constantly
making changes in its photographed
| features The working of the currents
and their changes are unobserved by the
ordinary traveller who plows his way over
| the turbid surface on a swiftly moving
steamer. All are hidden from him. 1t re-
quires a residence of years on its banks to
| rightly understand the peculiar philosophy
of its moving waters. This l attentively
studied during the fifteen years | was trad
| ing in fiatboats among the Indians and set
tleas along its banks in my early life.
One of the most striking pecularities of
the river is the uniformity of its meanders,
or bends Some of these are so uniform
and regular they have the appearance of
having been described by the sweep of a
compass, and consequently the course of
stream is very simmons. The bends are
consequently doubling on themselves and
forming what are called ''cut-offt, and the
river is travelling about in the alluvium,
after changing its bed many miles. as well
as its form
The Red river bend swept around some
fourteen miles; Walkers bend sixteen
miles The Red river bend broke through,
cutting off its extent of fourteen miles.
The state afterward set men to work to cut
off Walkers bend into Tunica bend, thus
reducing apparently the length of the river
sixteen miles or more, total in the two
ly changed the photography of the stream
and gave it this form instead of the very
crooked one it had previously.
This also brought the mouth of Red
river ten miles lower down than its origi-
nal position in the bend. When these
''cut offs occur the channels of the old
river, or rather the opening of the old river
into the new, Closes or as the people call
it, grows up" and in a few years the old
river is shut completely out of sight and
forms lake back in the forests. These
lakes or ''Old rivers" are traceable all along
the lower river. This growing up" is an
other popularity of the Mississippi and
would not be noticed by an ordinary trav
eller, unless bend or island that was I'M
dergoing this process was pointed out and |
the philosophy explained to him.
The explanation is this: When a bend !
breaks through an eddy is formed directly |
under the point of the ''old river" In this
eddy sandbar forms and on this sandbar |
in a short time, the alluvium, held in sus |
pension by the waters, is percipitated |
when Immediately the young cottonwood |
trees begin to grow. Every year new
line of trees makes its appearance and 50 |
on year after year and shuts the old river |
out from view The rows of cottonwoods /
in their growths are so exceedingly uniform |
and regular that they have the appearance |
of having been set out by human hands to |
ornament park or pleasure garden The |
different grOwths, year after year, can be
counted in regular graduation from the
sapling of the present year up to the most
tree Of the forest Of of five or
six feet in diameter
BARGE ENTHUSIASM;
Burlington Ha1ckeye, May 1: The barge
enthusiasm continues to engross the minds
and time Of prominent business men of our
section. The cheap transportation ques
ton is a serious one and very properly
should receive the serious attention which
has been accorded it. While the railroads
may claim the advantage of rapid transit,
the river route can certainly assert the SUI
perior advantage of unapproachable cheap
ness. 1t appears little strange that the
river traffic should once more become the
live issues of the day, when it was thought
years ago, and has been thought ever
since, to have been buried beyond all hope
of resurrection. Many of our readers can
recall the day of gilt-edge steamboating
when the entire trade and travel from the
lakes to the gulf went by the Mississippi,
when a first class captain or pilot receiveda
salary that few positions can afford to give
to day, when the highest aspiration of the
youth of progressive IDEAS and the man as
well, was to be successful riverman,
when the stately steamers touched the
banks in strict accordance with their an
nouncements, and loaded down with
train-loads of freight and scores of
passengers, and when the river bus
mess held as tight grip on the
rates as the closest combina-
ton we shall ever see. They are things of
the past. The railroad came in due time,
and the competition which ensued was q
death struggle, and both contestants real
zed it fully 1t was decisive combat, and
it was short one for an affair of its ma
lure. The land competition made such
frightful inroads into the profits of the boat ]
and barge lines that they could not run
their business upon so liberal basis as be-
fore. Wages and salaries came down and
trade decreased, and things went on from
BAD to worse, with the business growing
smaller by degrees and beautifully less, I'M {
il it had shrunken to that point beyond
which the railroads could not venture in /
he competition, and there the struggle !
ceased, and at this point the business has I
emained ever since OF course it could |
I, L.