The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1892-08-27
MORE OF TIE MISSISSIPPI PROB
LEN.
fpr f.ha1aesz N. pntloe. ]

recent aFllcitS III Engineering itHSd-
Zine touching upon the Improvement
! OF the Mississippi river-Mr. William
Nelson Black and "a Southern Engi-
lneer"-have jumped at conclusions III
a very reckless way. A careful study
| of the phenomena of the Mississippi
plainly shows certain facts, among
them these:
| Unless.the levees below Natchez are
maintained the greater part of Louis
lana must be abandoned and revert to
trackless swamps-
Every division of the current of the
Mississippi has been an evil unmixed
| with good. Every outlet has worked
injury, caused deterioration of the
main chanuel and increased the height
of the flood wave and its dangers
| No good and permanent improve
ment of the lower reaches OF the Mis-
sissippi is possible without the use OF
Tartificial banks-levees and jetties-
which shall safely confine all the water
| of Tie river TO one channel and dis
charge it into the gulf by one narrow
deep mouth upon the line of least re-
sistance. The guiding principle an
nounced by the Mississippi River Com
mission. that the river must be confin-
ed to one narrow channel, is most un,
donbtedly correct.
Anciently the edge of this continent
was above where the five-fathom curve
now lies In the Gulf of Mexico, and the
Mississippi flowed in bed now buried
many feet under the alluvium. A
cataclysm depressed the continent so
that the coast retreated to what are
now the high lands, and the Mississip-
pi found its mouth at or near Cairo,
Illinois, the present alluvial valley be-
ing the bottom of a great estuary ex-
tending some 600 miles into the CONT
nent During this period the allu-
vium Qoess) of the valley was deposit
| ted on the floor of the estuary. A
succeeding cataclysm raised the conti-
nent so that its ancient edge is but five
fathoms or thereabouts below the guilt
level, and the floor of the great estuary
is wide alluvial plain. having fall
from Cairo to the Gulf of about six
inches to the mile. This fall being SO
slight, the whole structure of the allu-
4 vial ground so featureless aud so un-
stable, aud the discharge of the river
so vast and so rregular-yarying
from 100000 to 100000 cubic feet
/ per second and reaching total of 202
cubic miles per year-the required
conditions of regimen and stability OF
/ channel must be made by art.
/ Examination of the country shows
that the river has curved its channel
| from one side TO the other Of the allu-
vial plain and has nowhere found con-
ditions of stability except whore man
has aided by building levees, and that
where the levees have been built
/ longest and strongest and best main
tanned, there the channel is deepest,
most regular and least liable to change,
/ On the other hand, wherever creyasses
and outlets have occurred, the channel
has been shoaled mp, the banks have
been destroyed and the dangers from
erosion and from flood increased. The
most startling Of these changes is that
due to the Atchafalaya outlet, the pro-
gressive results of which upon The
Hover river now threaten the existence
of New Orleans. The Mississippi Com
mission is more open to criticism fol
permitting the demands ola few steam
boat captains to prevent them from
closing the Atchafalaya than On any
other point
The maintenance of a single channel
made the Mississippi more than loo
feet deep at and above New Orleans
sinking the river bottom far below
gulf level the Atchafalaya outlet has
shoaled it very materially, and raised
the flood height several feet. What
then might be expected from an outlet
through Lake Pontchartrain as sug.
gested by "a Southern Engineer"
4 There can be no doubt that it would
practically destroy the present lower
river by sitting it up, and raise the
/ food height ten feet or more, and il
course of time extended the delta much
farther than even "a Southern Engi
neer' would consider desirable
An outlet 10 the East into Mississippi
Sound would debouch the river into
very SuaHOW HdtcF Apou tuC efiSuhf
submerged bench of the old continent
1t would be tryingto make water rur
without fall aud to follow circnitoui
route where now, after. rounding En-
glish Turn, il flows in a nearly straight
line; and the ultimate greater length
and crookedness of channel would
multiply several times the head neces
sary to carry the water into the Gulf
making Louisiana one vast swamp ane
closing the Mississippi to commerce.
| The writer's quoted desire delta
Can they name single river discharg
ing through delta which is not |
breeder of swamps and fevers, ;
menace to the inhabitants of its allu
vial district. and a puzzle to engineers
The delta should be abolished alto
gether. aud all the waters of the valley
should be discharged through one deep
narrow mouth. A stated quantity o
water will be discharged through on
large pipe with very much less heat
than through number of small one
of equal length and equal total area.
j That tbs laws of nature apply to tn,
Mississippi the same as TO other stream
is provided by the fact that the slop'
| fhrouoh tho dalta il rafhax- s,,ora~ tho,