The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1882-05-27
GATHER OF WATERS
Some Interesting Statements
Concerning the Mighty Mis-
sissippi.

A Chicago Times correspondent
says: Numberless are the efforts
that have been made to control the
stream and restrict it's waters. Mark
Twain's scheme to take the river IN
and straighten it so that sidewalk
built on line from Cairo to New
Orleans would strike Canal street
is as practicable as the plans of hall
the learned engineers. As well try
to sweep back the tide as to dam M
the river or head it off when it takes
a notion to go anywhere. II there
was only solid foundation to build
levees on, it might be within the
power of engineering skill to CON
struct walls strong enough to resist
the attacks OF the mighty river, but
there is nothing but sand and soft
mud and dirt from the surface to a
depth of hundreds OF feet, except at
isolated points two or three hundred
miles apart. When the watersssub-
sides after freshet it is no Unusual
thing for whole plantations to cave
in, where the bank has been under
mined for long distance back. II
there should happen to be levee a
mile high on the ground, or a Chi
nese wall two hundred feet thick and
nine stories high, it would made no
difference. The undermined terri
tory would go just the same. The
Mississippi is continually stealing
land from one bank and building
new land little further down, and
usually on the other side. A flood
comes along, and when it is gone it
is discovered that sand bar has
been formed in place where the
channel may have been twenty or
sixty feet deep few weeks before.
The bar gets higher and extends
further into the stream. The next
year or perhaps the same season, cot
tonwood sprouts spring up as fast as
blades of grass, and in two or three
years more forest covers the spot.
Nothing grows as fast as cottonwood
trees. They shoot up ten and fifteen
feet in a single season. In few
years the planter who owns the land
to the rear clears away the forest,
plants a crop, and, perhaps, builds
leyee, to protect his recent
territorial acquisition from the as
saults Of the water that gave it to
him.
Meanwhile, the men who lost the
land are calling on the state or gov
ernment to build levees to keep back
the water. Every once in while
the river breaks across peninsula
and either makes an island or lifts
hundreds of acres bodily from one
state to another. The river is full of
islands formed in this way. / kept
track of them till / passed 'Island
No. 49," and that was considerably
above Vicksburg. Thus the uncer-
tain river goes cutting and slashing
through the country.
'The ways of the river are as in
scrutahle as those Of Providence"
said venerable steamboat captain to
me as we sat chatting in his cabin
the other day. II have been follow
ing the business for nearly half
century and long ago gave up try
ing to DIVINE it's purposes or predict
its movements. 1t will take some
thing more than human ingenuity
or power to guide it in given path.
1t runs through made ground for
many thousand miles from the gulf
made by itself--and it is going to do |
pretty much as it pleases with that |
land. We are told by biologists that
where Baton Rouge now stands was
once a promontory on the coast of |
the Gulf of Mexico, and no doubt
that the salt waves Of the sea once
beat up against the base of the
Chickasaw bluff, clear up to Mem
phis. 1t must have taken countless
ages to have built up the land, and
the building process is not yet com
pleted. 1t is going on all the time.
Fill glass from the river and in
two hours there Will be half an inch
of sediment on the bottom. That is
what the land known as the Missis-
sippi bottom is made of. The bot
tom of the river is getting higher
every year. The land recedes from
the banks on either side excepting
where it touches the bluffs. 1t runs
along on the top of natural ridge
or hog back as the mountaineers
call it, The back country is basin
which would be nothing but
morass were it not for the creeks
and bayous that drain it into the
river lower down. The surface of the
river in very high water is from five
10 thirty feet higher than these ba-
sins, and when it runs over its banks
'r breaks through the flimsy levees,
t very naturally fills them up. Some
lay the river will get down from the
'idge on which it is now located and
make for itself a channel in lower
ground. 1t tried to do it this year
md will eventually succeed. 1t is
ny belief that the general side drift
# the river, between Memphis and
1icksburg $500 miles by water), is :
rom west to east, and that the chan /
'el will wash the Chickasaw bluffs /
il the way down as it has done in I
lines past: De Soto's grave is be- /
ieved by many to be forty miles !,
rest of the present channel Of the '
iyer away over there in Arkansas. i