The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, 1884-06-07

food such as occurs every 3 or A
years has ever been. Nay more,
it is the opinion, of many we'll &C
ouainted with the River, that it is
impossible for the great volume OF
water, at food tide, to ever pass
through between the levees with
ont giving the levees a height, and
the current a velocity, that would
bc destructive Of the lcvees them
selves, and this for the same rea-
son that a quart Of water cannot
be put into a pint cup. Ihetruth
lis that about all the space, be-
tween the high or natural banks
of the river, arc required to carry
of the immense volume OF water
at food tide, and cannot be res
trained between two levees less
than l mile apart. There is one
very important point l think that
the '~scouring" theorists loose sight
of in applying it to the River and
that is that when the water IS up
. to the top of the leyee, there is
t little or no current, al, or near
] the bottom of the river. to Go the
securing, but on the contrary the
bed actually fills up. | think ev
e cry steamboatman will snbstan
tiate this. There are plenty 0
proofs of this | believe, bnt | an
mot making an engineering aTgu
ment and so let this go, at what
t. have written. | think no one ha
ever gagged the river at food It'd
= = at say Vicksburg or has any ide
of the volume Of water passin
y, down between the high ground
:. or each side Of the river.
If then the volume of water !
-. the river when it is 80 or 80 mile
wide as it often is, with a stron
:. current most of the way and Of
depth of from Two to twenty te
deep, cannot be compressed with
the space Of less than one nail
; then reclamation by levees is il
possible and the attempt vain.
q But in the next place suppose
~ it were possible to contine t
greatest flood By lcyees is it wi
'a' for the State to attempt to do i
-. Are the lands worth the reclan
Il ton? Let US look to the pc
for an answer. The King
Spain gave a large portion of
soe lands fronting OF the river to
az original %proprietors on conditl
ies' that they would keep up lew
" and roads on the front Ye;
= i afterwards the United States, g
aim the most of the remaining Ian
M ion the front, and all the rear,
a swamp lands, subject to OVERT
cost by Mississippi water and mill
eeu of acres besides not subject
Ter, overfow by the Mississippi, to
Estate, to reclaim themselves. :
,ssi. State has cold nearly all IL
wee lands for all they were worth,
and spent the proceeds Of the wi
it is in levees on the Mississippi riv
:, is besides this million more raj
e. by taxation, has been sunk in
sads "Serborean Bog and no recIa
but ton has yet been effected. II
more then we see that the value of
lred lands and much more than
I SO were worth, has already |
the spent in leyeeing, and the en-
'hce' not yet. If the land is not "
I'm leveeing, if "there IS millions n
very as some contend, then why
'sh'' leave it to private enterpr
re Is There is abundance of ca
than seeking for profitable iuvestn
Hper- and the levee people have on
'a'er prove the feasibility and pro
q the enterprise, to get capt.;
hmis- to undertake it? If the ca,
can | lists don't see millions in it.
Is inc should the poor Bankrupt
hau0 which is unable to educate