Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-09-08
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
The Mississippi river is the greatest strear
: in the world. The total length is 1000 mile!
, On looking over a volume recently issued
entitled "Lloyd's Steamboat and Railroa
Directory" we find the following instructiv
) article on the waste of the waters of the Mis-
sissippi. 1t says:
No experience will enable person to an
ticipate, with any degree of certainty, tn
elevation of the food in any given year. Il
some seasons, the waters do not rise abov
their channels in others the entire lowe
valley of the Mississippi is submerged. EN-
bankments called levees have been raiset
from FIVE to ten feet high, ON both sides o
the stream, extending many miles above ant
below New Orleans BY this means the riv
er is restrained within its proper limits, ex
cept at the greatest freshets, when the water
sometimes break over everything, causing
great destruction to property, and sometime
loss Of life. The average height of the foot
from the Delta to the junction of the Nilsson
ri is above sixteen feet At the mouth, of tht
latter river it is tweBN, fya feet. Below tht
entrance Of the Ohio river the rise is Otter
fifty five feet. ..-..
At Nalchez, it seldom exceeds thirty feet
and at New Orleans about twelve feet. Wha
goes with the water? 1t is known that the
difference between high and low water mark
as high up as White river, is about thirty
six feet, and the current at high water mark
runs nearly seven miles per hour, and oppo
site to New Orleans the difference between
high and low water mark is only twelve feet
and the current little over three miles to
the hour. The width and depth of the river
being the same, from which we calculate that
nearly six times as much water passes the
mouth of the White river as by New Orleans
What goes with the excess? The only solu
tion ever offered, is that it escapes by the
bayous "Plaquemine," "Lafourche,' and
"Iberville," but when We calculate the width,
depth and current of these bayous, they fall
vastly short of affording sufficient escape
ment. The true explanation can, We think,
be given.
At low water, throughout the whole ex'
tent, we see land structure exposed, under.
lying the bank, or that the alluvial structure
on which the plantations are, is a structure
Of deposit made by the river above its low
water mark, which, opposite 10 the mouth of
White river, is thirty feet thick. AS you
descend, the river diminishes in volume as
the difference between high and low water
mark diminshes and nearly corresponds to
it, and wherever the bottom is exposed, it
shows throughout the whole extent, that the
bottom is pure coarse sand exhibiting at
many places the ocean shingle through the
superimposed alluvial structure mixed with
fine sand. The water percolates with such
facility and rapidity that the water in we'll
dug at considerable distance from the river
bank, rises and falls with the rise and fall Of
the river, not varying an inch, and through
the coarse sand and shingles of the bottom,
it passes as rapidly as through common
sieve.
By the accurate surveys of several scien.
ti6c engineers, it is ascertained that the fall
Of the Mississippi river is four inches to the
mile. The distance from Matches to New
Orleans, of three hundred miles, will give
twelve hundred inches or one hundred that faa,
Thc a. a. -rthr - -! Inaa ith,;1l-lfftv- iee'
at high water mark. The river debouches
into the ocean, from promontory made by
itself. The surface Of the ocean, by meas
urement below the bottom of the river, above
New Orleans, corresponds with the low water
mark below New Orleans, therefore the MIS-
sissippi river is pouring through its own bot
tom into the ocean, the superimposed weight
giving literal pressure to hurry the subterra
mean current If the reader has ever stood
upon Mississippi sand-bar, in hard rain,
or seen water poured from a bucket on the
sand-bar, he has seen that neither can be
done in sufficient quantity to produce any
current or accumulation on the surface. The
river is, therefore, from the time it comes
below the limestone stratas of Missouri and
Kentucky, wasting itself through lis own
bottom.
If the Mississippi river had to pursue its
course, like the Ohio, over rocky strata wall
ed in by rock and impervious clay banks, the
high water mark at New Orleans would reach
one hundred feet above its present limits !;
but running over coarse sand, walled in by
deposit made of sand, ancient alluval, det
ritus and vegetable mold, no more water
reaches the ocean than the excess over the
amount that permeates the surrounding struc
ture and passes off in the process OF percola-
tion or transportation in subterranean de-
seen. to the ocean. The river without any
other restraint from rock or clay in the bot
tom or bank, is left free TO the government OF
no other law than the law of hydrostatics.
The washing or wasting of the banks cannot
he prevented, though the caving or sliding of
large portions at one time may be easily
guarded against.
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THE YOUNG LAWYERS FIRST CASE.
The young lawyer conducting his first case
before jury is worthy of the deepest commits
Grafton. Take him for instance, in the GRIM
inal court, before which he has case. While
the prosecuting attorney is tying the first
witness into bow knots and untying him
again, the amateur sits listening, but endeav-