Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-02-19


Lake Borgne, and If need be into the
Atchafalaya the rivers surface will be
so lowered that New Orleans, perfectly
drained and expurgated, may become
the most healthful, as II is to-day the
foulest city on Gods footstool. To-day
the city's dead are thrust into its "cat-
acombsp above(?) ground, or, rather
above water, and the city's foul excre-
tions, the river being higher than the
city, must be pumped Into the river
aid lakes. Why not remedy these
evils by lowering Their surface to
the level of tide-water, instead of ag-
gravating them by upbuilding levees
forever.
AGES AGO.
There was time when the mouth
of the river was Mt New Orleans. Then
the rivers surface at that point
was seventeen feet lower than to-day.
By the projection of alluvium into the
gulf the river lengthens itself moving
the Gulf shore line outwardly $50 to
500 feet per annum. This process is
annually accelerated by the annual ex-
tension and multiplication of cultiva-
ted fields along the Mississip-
pi and its tributaries. Each year moro
aud more soil Is borne outwardly To the
sea aid each year the shore line of the
gulf is removed outwardly more and
more rapidly towards the Florida
Keys. Pdri poSsu with this elonga-
ton of the river its whole surface
from Cairo TO the gulf, is steadily up
lifted. The process is promoted by
levee builders and the distribution of
alluvinum along its whole course
Many thousand years ago there was
a Niagara Falls at Grand Tower above
Cairo, and there the Mississippi
plunged into the sea. Through many
ages, and yet within modern geolog-
zeal period, this chasm has been slowly
filed with detritus from mountain
sides and soil from boundless plains.
This alluvium was constantly moved
forward from 1.-THE falls" which be-
came "the rapids.n The current was
still retarded as the channel was
filled and river heightened. but
it is still true that the
current is swiftest just below the
Grand Tower, and slowest nj the
points more and more remote. There
fore 1t happens that though most mud
most is deposited where the current Is
most sluggish and the valley is filed
up more rapidly below than above
New Orleans and still more rapidly do
mud Jumps" rise up where the rivers
current, impinging upon those
of the sea, finally stands still.
These facts account for the
steady elevation of the rivers
mouth and the depression in
the valley at Vicksburg and above
The survey made by government engi
neers furnishing the diagram already
to, shows the correctness Of
these statements and deductions from
recorded facts. When the river met
the sen at Yicksburg its surface was
100 feet below the present water line
at Vicksburg and when the river is
500 miles longer than To day the iiver's
surface will probably be quite 100 feet
higher than to-day. In other woras,
as the river is heightened
its bed and banks are steadily up-
lifted and levees, to cohfine the floods.
must rise higher and higher through
the ages.
FANTASTIC TRICKS OF THE RIVER.
OF course, these statements are only
true. The lawless
stream Is ungovernable. 1t levees
Itself and then breaks down its self
built levees rs II does those reared by
human toll. 1t rushes madly TO the
lowest point in the valley and there
-enews for itself the ever progressive
ask of levee-building. Every
.raveler tells that the Mis-
'issippi occupies n ridge in the
owlands from Cairo to the Gulf The
lverage rate of descent from the wat
IRIS edge outwardly in both directions
rom the river Is from twelve 10 six
cen feet per mile. Therefore travel
RS on steamers look down upon
louse tops in the valley along the
and therefore the frightful
distractions of each crevasse when the
mighty volume of pent up tawny
waters leaping down upon pretty
ose-clad homes of sugar and cotton
planters, overwhelm African villages
nd desolate fairest fields Of price
ess value.
'REAKs OF THE oroNsTRoUs RIVER.
But no sooner has the great volume
4 the flood carved out for itself new
hannel In the lowest accessible val
ey, than 1t renews the process of up-
uilding its banks and lifting up its
ed. The average depth and width
f the water remains always and
the same. As the banks
Use, upward from deposits naturally
nade by outllowing little streams,
,hen they first leave the river,
ven so does the bottom of the
liver. Sediment is deposited at the
ottom as on the rivers verge and the
ottom rises with the walls hedging IL
n. Therefore we see that the valley
nd rivers bed itself have been slowly
nd constantly uplifted, each year and
ge, until the channel Is now 100 feet
igher than when the rivers mouth
vas at Vicksbprg and seventeen feet
igher than when river and sea met at
Iew Orleans.
Recus, the French savan, tells IN
lis book, "The Earth,u published by
Harper d Bro, that while the Attain
lie coast steadily goes down and while
he Atlantic constantly invades
he country, its inroads extending
urther and further each year, that the
cast Of the Gulf of Mexico as steadily
nd more rapidly rises out of the sea.
By this unknown force the mouth Of
he Mississippi Is constantly uplifted,
nd in this manner co.Operates with
eyee and jetty builders In the process
{ annually augmenting the width,
epth and destructiveness of floods.
While jettles raise the waters surface
ne or two feet at the Balize, mother
arth's steady compression Mt the poles
nd expansion about the equator, Us
his the canse?D co. operates
With levee and jetty builders
nd the sea recedes and land rises up,
Ia rivpr Ia 1pnpt hauad iiu n,nufh