Wichita eagle., 1888-06-19
MOVING WESTWARD.
Strange Phenomena Noted in the Move
ment of Rivers.

The people who live on the banks OF
Mississippi river, says the New Orleans
Picayune, are accustomed to the astonish-
ishing activity of this vast volume of
moving water in shifting its channel and
cutting away its banks in one place while
it builds up new territory at another.
The entire alluvial region of the Missis-
sippi valley was created by the river,
and the land it has built up is ever at the
mercy Of the forces that made it.
So long as changes wrought by this
mighty current are all in the same ma
tiOnal limits no political compilca-
tons are possible consequent upon
the ravages of the river and its power
to transfer territory from one place
to another. 1t would be different if two
nationalities We're concerned, and some
thing like this is coming into view III the
case of the Rio Grande. which is the
boundary for a long distance between
the United States and Mexico. In this
connection the following statement,
which comes from Mexico. is Of interest:
Governor Garlic, of the state of Chi
huahua, has recently made trip OF IN
vestigation along the banks OF the RIO
Grande from Paso del Norte down for
distance of about one hundred miles. lie
found to his establishment that the river
was making slow but constant lnroads
into Mexican territory, eating away the
Mexican banks and depositlng them on
the American side, and that thus many
thousand acres of the most fertile lands
in the Rio Grande valley on the Mexican
side had been washed away. upon IN
quirv into this subject he ascertained
from the leading inhabitants of that Sec
ton of the country that this had been
going on for over generation, and that
large numbers of people have been maize
homeless and forced TO leave the coun.
try. many of them going to the New
Mexican settlements of Mesilla, Cham
berino, Iaumore, Las Cruces and So
zorro. Governor Garlic aScertalned al
SO that great losses of valuable territory
had been taking place in the vicinity OF
Paso del Norte. at which town defensive
works are now being erected by compe-
tent engineers.
The governor has, since his return to
Chihuahua indicated that he Is fully I'M
pressed with the importance of the SUBJ
iect, and that he intends to advise not
only the state representatives at the city
of chihuahua but also the national con-
gress now in session in the City of Mex
leo to make appropriations to be expend-
ed in fortifiying and mattresslng and
riprapping the river bank at all exposed
points. He saws these encroachmentf
of the river. unless speedily stopped, will
cause a loss of national W alth, irrepar-
able loss to Paso Gel No te and the finan-
cial ruin of hundreds of families.
Apart from the international interests
involved there are speculations of a
scientific nature suggested in the prem
ises which NAV be worth mention. 1t
appears that the western and southwest
ern bank of the Rio Grande is the one
which suffers most from the abrasions
of the current. Why does the river
show this tendency to work to the west
ward? Something like this appears In
the case of the Mississippi.
Formerly the river had its principal
debouchment into the sea through Bayou
Manchae and the lakes. In the course
of time that route was abandoned for the
one known as the main river,
which is very considerably to
the westward of the old outlet. In
the meantime the river has shown dis
position to transfer its channel still
farther to the westward through the
Atchafalaya. Can it be made to appear
from these facts that there is tendency
in great rivers flowing IN general direc-
tions along meridians of the earth's long
itude to swerve TO the westward! Can
it be held that because of the rotation of
the earth on its axis to the eastward the
weight of the waters in such longitudin-
al rivers is thrown by the centrifugal
force against the western banks so as to
abrade them with increased energy and
effect: The matter Is worth examina-
ton