St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-02-11
THE MIS- >ISSIPPI.
Captain CowdOn Before the House Com
mittee on Levees.

Captain John CoWdon. of Lou siana re-
Gently address the Housc Committee on
levces and Improvements of the M.ss.s sippl
River. He said, in substance, that the main
question was to prevent the overflow of low
lands and to deepen the channel OF the
Mississippi River as to render it capable of
performing the high mission with which it
was charged-that it should serve as the high
way on which sho Id be transported the pro
vision to feed the nations of the wolld-unil
the Valley of the Mississippi attained that po-
stion to which it destined the guar
dian OF civilization and the arbitcr, through
| It's great resources, of the progress of hu-
manity.
He first considered the comparative merits,
| in a general sense, of the various plans sug-
gested, as likely 10 accomplish this important
result, The plans of the Missi>s ppi RIVER
Commiss on, he said. would require an
| pendlturc of $l(0W0,010, as estimated by the
friends of the measure and advocated by the
Commission. He had no hostility to exhibit,
nor did he feel any against this Commission
or its proposed measure. On the contrary,
! there was much that had his warm approval
! from the high character of the ends sought to,
| be obtained, and therefore he felt no antag-
| n;sm ags inst it, an instead felt that those
united i'll an effort to attain Il common pur.
| pose should labor together in the highest
| spirit of harmony.
He did not hesitate, however, to say that he
bel eved and he had devoted years of earnest
| labor while acquiring this belief, that a sim
per plan than that of the Mississippi River
Commission might be pursued by resoeting
to the outlet system, and this latter, instead.
of requiring many ears to complete and cost
ing $l00, 900, could be perfected in q very
short time. and at an expense not to exceed
in all three -fourths of $l,o00.000.
Before any action taken, the first eS-
sential w:ls that the statesmen to whom was
contided the determination of his important
question should have clearly before them the.
full history OF the Father of Waters. Once this
great river was an arm OF the sea, when it ex-
tended to the present mouth of the OHIO Riv-
er. That this was the ease is proven by the
discoveries, hundi eds of feet beneath the sur
face OF the soil of forest trees which grew in
those ancient days. lie spoke of piece of
cyprus taken from the representative of one
OF that species OF trees which had been found
30 feet below the surface of the earth. From
New Orleans to Cairo, he said, you could lind
the stumps of trees standing in the or der in
which they grew from high to low water
mark. as the bricks are arranged one above.
the other in building made by hands.
The Mississippi River has fall from the
City of Cairo to the Gatf of Mexico of 1886 feet
between Cairo and Memphis fall of 10 feet
Helena is 2O0 feet above the level of the Gulf,
andthe mouth of the Arkansas 1872 feet Vicks-
burg is 100 and Natchez 81 feet The mouth of
the Red River "a feet. Baton Rouge lthe capt
tai OF louisiana 80 feet flaquemines 30 feet,
and Lake Borgne Is feet. At the head of the
passage the rise and tall is about pa feet. We
nave thus Il fall in ,l20 miles, which is the
stance from Cairo to tire Gulf, of $50 feet.
The levee system prescribed by the Board of
Engineers OF 1915 require levees to be raised
at Cairo to the height of three feet, at Mem
phis and Helena seven feet at Island No Il
zen feet, at Lake Providence eleven feet ut.
and Natchez six feet, at the mouth
qucnines and Donaldsonville five feet st
New Orleans four and a half feet. This work is
proposed to be done at cost of $40, 100000
The River Commission proposes to close tfo.
outlets, and if they do they will re- establish
the ,,, levee system recommended n 1875.
The amount asked for by the friends of the
outlet system is $3.50 600 for preliminary sur.
vey and test and on a successful showing
within brief and limited time further APP.
preparation of $500 600 to complete the work.
In 1858 the leyee system was perfected, and
in that year Gen. Humphrey reports: ave
had another overflow, which lasted 1919 days,
The longest period on record, and by five
cross. sectional surveys across the valley, tho
overflow averaged Il feet deep and Az miles
vide, from Cairo to near tide water"
1T is conceded that our leyee sys EN- in that
,ear is the best we have ever had. and yet
he levee system finds friends and advo-
,ates among our scientific engineers.
There is practical Illustration of the value
II the outlet system i'll the fact that while the
outlets of the Mississippi have kept the river
n its banks, the river has deepened its own
led from three to four feet from Greenvillet,
he mouth of Red River, distance of 800
niles EAs4
ives the number of crevasses as eight each
ear. This was when there was general
evee system. What would be the effect with
even feet more piled on top OF them, as is.
low proposed?
In 1858 there were As crevasses, aggregatng
width or As miles, In 1859 there were 70 from
he mouth of the St. Francis River to Bonnet
ARE. The report of the Board of Engineers.
n 1915 says that the crevas ses in 1874 were too
numerous to mention, but that their total
iidth in Ark ansas and Missouri was 100 mites
n the same year in Mississippi a III Louisiana
here were 4s breaks in the levees. and the
epOrt says that if the levees had not broken
he water would have gone over the top of
hem and, also, that the levees were under
rom 6 to feet. In 1S45 the wat II at t. high
at period of thatyear at Memphis lacked but
feet and inches of high water mark; at the.
,ches; at Vicksburg feet and inches; at.
ne mouth of Red River it lack d 6 feet and 5
lches; at New Orleans it lacked feet: in
81 it lacked feet and inches at Memphis,
the mouth of the White River 2 te.t and ,,
aches, at Vicksburg II feet 5 inches, and a.
ew Orleans feet and inches.
+" Now let me ask what caused this lowering
the flood lines in the lower river as,
lown. unless drawn off through the outlets
the Atehnaifalaya, Ms ~ sa, and Bonnet
nd inches of being to high. water mark; at
lie mouth of the White River it lacked foot
feet; at the mouth of Red River 1 feet and 10.
ches; at DonaIdsonville feet; at New.Or-
ans feet. This shows the effect of damming
u TlfcI IuDuGu. w uct buey commenced
e work at the South Pass they contracted
10 lower end of the pass which caused it to-
oal then in order to force more water down
at pass dams were placed across the head
the Southwest Pass, which depth was re-
iced from twenty -one feet to twelve feet.
I'd the Pass lOutre, which was reduced
ON fourteen feet to seven feet This backed
e water to New Orleans to within two feet
the high water mark which was four feet
ore than the " az before, and previous to
e building of the dams.
!. We leave the river ten miles below New
leans with a fall of about fourteen feet in
ing to the lake, a distance of FIVE miles This
re is about forty five miles long, and has an
ca of some 800 square miles, and has cen