Middletown transcript., 1882-03-17
THE MISSISSIPPI AND IT'S FLOODS.

Lower Mississippi and the causes Of ii
overflow imagine the mighty strear
flowing from the mouth Of the Obi
river through vast alluVial plai
thirty miles wide and gradual
extending to a width of $50 miles a
the Gulf of Mexico. Through the en-
tire length of this plain this turbit
stream flows in zig-zag and constant
ly shifting channel a distance of nearl,
thousand miles to where it emptie
through its several mouths into TIN
Gulf. This plain, containing abou
40, 600 square miles, has been formed
in the course of ages from materia
brought down from the uplands of thu
Mississippi and its tributaries. Ricl
in vegetable and organic matter, finel!
filtrated, is consequently one of if mo-
the most fertile and productive regions
in the United States, the richest por
tions being found in "the bottom
lands" Immediately contiguous to thu
river and its numerous tributaries
Both sides are lined with plantation!
which extend for miles back into tht
country, all of which are more or les.
under cultivation, while thriving towns
and cities dot its banks to the Crescent
City.
In the summer and when the river is
low its surface is depressed from twenty
to thirty feet below its banks, but
when the autumnal rains set in, fol.
lowed by the spring thaws, the channel
rapidly fills, and wherever unchecked
overhows its banks right and left,
spreading for many miles over the
great, wide, level plain. To protect
the cultivated lands from this yearly
threatened inundation they are guard
ed by artificial elnbankments thrown
up in front of each plantation. These
are called levees, and are hundreds of
miles in extent, almost lining the en-
tire course of the river. They vary in
height from six to forty feet in some
places and are proportionately thick
through at the base. As might be ex-
pected the cost of building and keeping
in repair these immense earth structures
is very heavy; in some instances it de-
wolves upon the county, in others upon
the State in many instances upon the
individual planters, and it is largely to
the want of proper and comprehensive
system capable of coping
with the yearly threatened
hanger that the present disaster is to
be attributed.
When the channel of the river is full
is level is many feet above that of the
adjacent country and within a few
inches probably of the top of the levee.
The danger arising from its great pres
Iure against these artificial banks from
/ current of immense volume running
It the rate of seven miles an hour can
,e readily estimated.
At such times the people live in con-
tant dread of inundation, and are
,alled upon to exercise the keenest Wig
lance to prevent catastrophe. Neither
money, labor nor time is spared in such
The entire neighborhood
S summoned to action, all weak points
ire at once strengthened, new levees are
ometimes erected in the rear, like
ecOnd line of Notifications; guards
,atrol the banks day and night search
ng for the least leak in the earth wall,
IT the faintest stopping ovtr the top,
or woe betide the section that allows
me to escape notice. In a very short
ime the bank melts before it like dis
diving sugar and the pressing wall of
water cuts its way through, making the
lreaded crevasSe. A crevaSse or break
n the levee once made is rarely closed,
nd only then under exceptional cir
and with great difficulty.
\ torrent of water several feet high,
'ouring through an opening of crumb-
ing earth walls is no easy thing to
heck, and, in fact, rarely is checked.
Unless there is existing, or has been
rected, ga protection levee' in the
ear, it only takes very few hours for
he sea of waters to spread over miles
( the level, cultivated valley, drowning
he crops, destroying stock and spread
lg ruin and desolation broadcast.
The only method ever successful in
topping crevasses is by driving strong
lies and filling up the interstices with
and bags, but this method is only ef-
ective in minor instances, since once
nder headway, nothing can withstand
he force of the rushing waters. Under
he circumstances it is impossible to es-
innate the losses and sufferings incurred
Y the victims of the late overflow.
he inundated district is SO vast in ex-
mt and may be submerged with it's
crops for SO many weeks,
lring which period its people will re-
ain entirely destitute as far as any
JiIity to provide for their own wants
concerned, that even in its present
'pect it rises to the proportions of a
ltional calamity.-N. 2. Herald. II
-A
Mr.. William Hughes, of Baltimore,
Gently married a Miss Burroughs, of
irginia. A remarkable coincidence
his family is that he has three broth ,
s who all have the same birthday, /
ch one of whom was married OH his
venty-sixth birthday to Miss Bur-
ughs, at the same church, by the
me clergyman, the three brides be-
ming twenty-one years old on that
".
A single frame dwelling on fine
rect in Haverhill, Mass, was the tin
,rbox in which started the late con-