Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-02-11
LETTER FROM WARMER. ARK.

| OA1sON1Si1E; WHASIIf II JONA NN~oAI'
to, you can insert. We will star
off by saying that we, our survey
ing party, are engaged in locating
line upon which the Gould man
agement on this side of the Missis
sippi propose to build railway
There are some twenty Of us with
three wagons, a well supplied lar
der and pocket full of money
Our orders are to locate the line al
all hazards. Our base of operations
lies from White river southwark
across the Arkansas river, and
down bayou Bartholomew to the
Louisiana State line. If you will
glance at the map you will quickly
see that water and how to avoid it,
is the subject that will take up
much of the engineers time. 'Tis
here that the White, Arkansas,
Ouachita and their numerous tribu-
taries draw very near together in
their course to the Mississippi, and
the entire country is of the latest
geological formation averaging 100
feet above sea level only. All these
streams overflow their banks, and
because you are twelve miles from
the river is no reason why you are
above overflow, above which of
course you must lay your grade
lines. 1t will run in one channel
long enough to cut out river bed
and raise the banks for half mile
back higher than the surrounding
country. Then leave that channel
for another, this converts the de-
serted one into long lakes with
graceful curves. You encounter
these old river beds in every direc-
ton. That was what the water
done ages ago, but what it is doing
now most interests us, or rather
did last week when our camps were
on the banks of the White river for
the purpose of getting line across
it and its submerged districts. 1t
took seven days, Sunday included,
to do this, with a rain incessantly
falling, and part of the time Bor-
can blast freezing it. The White
river was rapidly rising and the
location had to be made here for it
was a governing point for a long
distance either way from it. So we
toiled ON in the rain with long rub
Der over coats and gum boots on.
1t was best to lay the line along the
banks of the numerous lakes be-
cause the banks were high. These
lake banks were covered with dense
cane brakes through which we
slowly cut our way with heavy cane
knives. Sometimes our party
would suddenly emerge from one
of these brakes on the bank of the
river. They look so still you wish
for something to break the solitude.
They are all connected with the
river by cutoff channels, and the
rising river was rapidly filling
them. Our boats would meet us at
these lakes and ferry us across.
After the days work was done the
party would take the two boats and
start for camps. Drifting down the
cut-offs to the silent lakes and then
racing down them. If one had i'm
agination he might use it here, we
were all dressed in long rubber
coats, slouched hats and some of us
not extra good looking, and as our
two boats full of men would emerge
from cutoff in the twilight on to
one of these lakes and square our
selves for race around its curves,
with our flag stats for colors and
our cane knives for swords, we
might be put down as party of
"Lafitte's best" bent on booty. But
we did not imagine that, we were
only in a hurry to get home to sup
per after a hard days work in the
rain. The lines across the bottoms
were just finished in time, for the
river rose rapidly, and we have the
satisfaction of knowing that of all
the surveys made across White
river, ours will be the chosen line,
and in a year from now the through
st. Louis passenger can sit in the
sleeper and see the lakes and cane
brakes without getting wet as we
did.
The country between White river
and the Arkansas is prairie,
nice country, certainly, to survey
in. There is no trouble in selecting
your route nor surveying it after
wards. To a novice distances on
the prairie are very deceptive, be-
cause you see an object you think it
cannot be far off, you can see your
tents like white spots on the edge
of the timber, but if you do not
start for them with the sun an hour
high you will get there in the night.
There is a house just to your right,
YOU go there to see the owner and
have him show you his land corner
so that you can connect your sur
veys with the land surveys. In
two hours you are back so ex-
hausted you lay down and rest,
after recovering from your fatigue
you look again, and that vexatiOus
house seems only fifteen minutes
walk off, but you now know for
certain that it is an optical delu-
sion. Large f1ocks of wild geese
come to these prairies at night to
roost. They come in from the lakes
and rivers about twilight. The
boys made it business every night
for week to hunt them. You lay
fiat on the ground and crawl like a
lizard towards the geese. No goose
has ever suffered from any of their
f'dark undertakings" the difficulty
is that while you hunt the wild
goose the wild goose is hunting for