The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1891-02-14
DREDGING BA YOU LAFOUR-
CHEM

CHL -.
For three years the United State!
Government has had, during the low
water season a dredge boat in Bayou
Lafourche. Work was commenced, al
the mouth ofthe Bayou, whcreit leaves
the Mississippi river and has thoroughly
cleaned the stream of all distractions
and bars to the vicinity of P~aincourt.
vile, a distance of about ten miles.
Wrecks of sunken fat boats, logs that
have found Judgement in the bottom OF
the streams, stamps of trees, and sand
bars have been removed from their
positions, and thrown upon the sides
of the stream.
Everything in the form of wood has
been quickly removed by the citizens
and used as fuel. 1t was the SUPPOSE
ton OF many persons that all the dirt
excavated during low water would be
washed hack during the succeeding
high water.
The history of the work, so far,
dispels that theory, for the channels
%excavated during two years have not
filled by the high waters that followed
them. Will that be the history of the
work in the futures
That is a question upon which
doubts may arise.
The bottom of Bayou Lafourche, as
far as these excavations have extended,
was the original formation of soil,
and is a stiff, pitchy substance that
adheres to the sides of the stream
with a tenacity that the abrasion of
the currents n n effect. But when
the dredging reaches N%apolesnville,
which ought to be accomplished in
another season Of low water, the
bottom of the Bayou will be found to
be covered with the sandy deposits of
the Mississippi water, which will in
crease in depth as the excavation will
extend down the Bayou.
Now, will those sand deposits remain
firm on the banks when thrown out1
At first thought one would suppose
not, but upon reflection, and exalnina-
ton there is no solid argument that
will sustain that idea. 1t il a notorious
fact that those deposits, along the
sides of the Bayou. are as firm as the
earth to which it adheres.
In 1890 the Police Jury of the Parish
of Lafeurche, under the impression
that those battures We're simple for
nations of sand deposits, undertook
to blow them up, with dynamite, and
allow the current, in high waters to
carry them to the Gulf of Mexico.
But when the effort was made. it
was discovered that those battures
were as solid and substantial as the
earth itself, in fact, they were no
longer sand battures but formations of
solid earth.
Now, if these deposits that are
created along the banks of the Bayou
transform themselves into solid earth,
it is not unreasonable to D that
those formed upon the bottom of the
Bayou would become the same mate
rial as the earth upon which it has
found a Judgement. 1t is claimed
that the dredging thus far has supplied
a good and practicable channel for
small steamboats, and fatboats during
low water, for the transportation of
such merchandise and products az
may be brought in or tent out during
the low stage of water that is generally
witnessed every summer. At this
date, shipments can be easily and
safely made when previous to this
planters were frequently
deprived of any means Of ~tfansporta-
ton for weeks at a time.