St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-09-14
Louisiana Rivers.
SOME OF THE IMPROVEMENTS UNDER WAY
AND SUGGESTED.

SuUIHlbbco " SoASicSS NY tAc. Cdiei VI CA-
gineers:
With the appropriations heretofore
allowed, the distractions below Covington,
on the Tchefuncta river, were removed,
and improvements made on Bogue Falia,
between Old Landing and Covington, by
cutting a channel five feet in depth and
thirty to sixty feet wide through the bars
between these places.
The original estimate for improving this
river was $546O, the greater portion
of which was for dredging the bar at the
mouth.
1t was thought, however, that a dredged
channel over this bar could not be main
tanned without protecting works, which
would cost considerably more than the
dredging. 1t is suggested, as method
for improving this, to build jetty or
breakwater $500 feet long across the bar
into the comparatively deep water of Lake
Pontchartrain, and then to dredge the
channel through the bar, in the hope that
the jetty would prevent, or, at all events,
greatly retard the reflling of the cut with
sand.
Should the improvement be made, as
contemplated, the protection of the mouth
of the river would also enable vessels nav
q
refuge in case of gales.
The estimated cost of the improvem ent
of Tickfaw and it's branches was SIC, $50.
In 1888, Congress allowed $1,000 for the
river and its navigable tributaries, and the
latter being in good condition, the Snag-
ging Plant Company commenced work on
the river itself early in May, 1889, remov
ing the Instructions and worked up stream
IN wit in mill If he har Mo
where work ceased, the appropriation be-
ing exhausted.
The navigable portions of the Tickfaw
and it's tributaries are now in good condi-
ton, but the improvement will not be
permanent, as distractions will again
form in consequence of freshets and the
careless telling of timber. An appropri-
alton of $1,000 annually will keep these
streams in good condition.
In 1888 Congress appropriated $4,000 for
Amite river, and stipulated that of this
sum $500 might be used in improving
Bayou Manchac. The smuggling plant
commenced in Bayou Manchac and worked
up from it's mouth to Hereford Landing
leaving the Bayou in good condition to that
point and beyond which it will hardly be
advisable to extend the work. 1t was de-
sired to excavate a turning basin for
steamboats, just above Hereford Landing,
but the money available for the bayou
having been exhausted. it could not be
done. All the Instructions in the Amite
river down to its mouth were cleared out.
To keep these streams clear and eXcayate
turning basin for steamboats, at the head
of navigation on Bayou Manchac an appro-
priation of $4,000 is required, and should
be available for work upon either the
Amite river or Bayou Manchac without
limitation.
In 1883 Congress appropriated for i'm
proving Bayou Lafourche $50, 900. The
project involves the construction of q lock
connecting with the Mississippi at Donald
sonvii1e, thus converting the bayou into a
salt water canal, and subsequent dredging
of the canal to width of seventy five feet
with depth Of five feet at mean low water
of the Gulf of Mexico. At the head of the
bayou was bar whose surface was so high
that during the low water of 1887 it shut
the river entirely out it was, therefore,
decided to dredge channel sixty feet wide
through the bar to depth of four feet be-
low mean low tide of the Gulf, hoping to
thus admit enough water from the river to
avoid the stoppage of fatboat navigation.
The first cut through the bar, as had been
hoped, admitted sufficient water to at once
open it up again and no further trouble
was experienced during the season.
The least depth of water that will insure
continuous fatboat navigation is two feet at
mean low tide of the Cult, and to secure
this will require total excavation of $780,
900 cubic yards of material from numerous
bars scattered between Donaldsonville and
Thibodaux.
A dredged channel cannot be expected to
be permanent SO long as the sediment bear
ing water of the Mississippi river is al
lowed free access to the bayou, and there
fore should properly not be done until after
the lock is built. The lock and necessary
dredging were estimated to cost $3.50, 600
and it was urgently recommended that if
the work was to be done it should be all
appropriated at once.
The United States engineer reports as
follows on this subject 81 desire to repeat
this recommendation, and to add that I
doubt very much if $4,000 expended
annually in dredging will suffice to keep
the bayou open. The lock once built, any
dredging done will be practically perma-
nent, as the small amount of the river
water used in locking through boats will
not carry enough sediment to materially
damage the channel below. The cost of
of slack water navigation is
at $50, 600 annually"
In 1888 Congress appropriated 100000
for continuing the improvement of Calca
sieu river and pass, but as the work was
completed according to the approved pro
ject this money will be held until further
work is required. A considerable COM
MERGE passes through the pass and river.
IN. O. Times Democrat.
A Famous Charger on the Retired List
The N. Y Suns Middleton, N. z, spe-
sial says: When Colonel Samuel Fowler,
he founder of Port Jarvis, and at one
line chairman of the Democratic State COM
nittee of New York, went to the war in
1852 at the head of the Fifteenth New Jer-
,ey Volunteers, a regiment recruited in his
native county of Sussex, some of his
friends in both States united in presenting
him with charger. They selected s.
year, old brown, famous for style and
speed.
Colonel Fowler rode his young charger
1t the head of the gallant Fifteenth
through two hard-fought campaigns, and
until he himself was constrained to retire
rom the service by the malady which |
afterward caused his death.
On Colonel Fowler's retirement, Rest |
ess passed into the hands of the Rev. A.
A. Paines, chaplain Of the regiment, and
he son of a former famous governor of