The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-01
THE FATHER OF WATERS.
Why tho Great River Overflows Its
Banks SO frequently and
Disastrously.
Riding Along tho Stream Several
Feet Below the Level Of
Water.
Causes Of Breaks In the Levees-Course
OF the Water After 1t Has Broken
Through.

Every spring tho Mississippi river, swol-
len by the melting of the snow in the Rocky
mountains and by the abundant spring
rains, threatens with inundation the low
lands OF Mississippi and Louisiana. Not
infrequently 1t breaks through the bonds
which contine its course, and spreads its
muddy waters over thousands Of square
4 miles of that fertile region, destroying the
fields Of young cotton and zane, and bury
ing the fertile soil beneath layers Of liver
mud.
Those who read accounts Of these inun-
dations, of their widespread destruction
and of the immense areas covered by them
may be at a loss to understand how the
mere fact of this river OVERLOOKING its ban Ks
can lead to SO extensive floods.
These bottom lands are q peculiar re-
Rion. Originally a shallow arm of the gulf,
they have been filed by deposits from tho
river. Even at present niue-tenths of the
region is a marsh covered with grass or
cypress forests, through which lows the
Mississippi with it's branches, and which is
interssoted by countless bayous, forming
an intricate network of water courses. All
the streams, with scarcely an exception,
flow upon the tops OF ridges. These ridges
are low, rising but ton to twenty feet above
the intervening AREAS of marsh, and range
in breadth from a few rods up to perhaps
four miles, The stream bed ia a notch upon
the summit.
These ridges have been built by the
streams. In former times, before the streams
were confined TO their beds by levees, they
overfowed their banks with every high
tide. as the flood is called. The river,
always muddy, is in time of flood hsavil y
charged with sediment, brought pc rhaps
from the high plains and Rocky mountains.
Where the stream is rapid it has no diff
Guilty in bearing onward it's load of sedi-
ment, but when its velocity is checked, as
it is when the stream is suddenly widened,
it is forced to deposit some of it. When
the stream overf1ows its banks il becomes
thus b%roadened. its velocity is checked, and
it consequently deposits some of its load,
the ~coarsest material first, the finer mater
ial later. BY this process of overflow have
the rivers and bayous built up the ridges
on which they flow.
The only habituble and tillable parts of
this region are the gentle slopes of these
river ridges, and upon these, which form
bnt n tritlinR ., proportion of the entire area.
the inhabitants are congregated. The roads
commonly follow the river, running i'm
medintely at the foot Of the levee, and it is
along these roads that the houses are found.
The plantations stretch in narrow strips
back from the river.
The ~levees, which arc built continuously
along both sides of the river and principal
bayons of this region, are sometimes ten or
twelve feet In height, and in time of food
the river is frequently full up to the top of
the levee. One may ride along the road
under the levee with the water of the river
five or six feer above his head.
When the river is in flood the levees are
patrolled night and day by the inhabitants,
watching for the slightest indication of
weakness. A thin stream of water the size
of ones finger breaking through the lower
part Of a levee may in m hour, if I'm
checked, develop into a break or crevasse
which cannot be closed, and which may in
volve a loss of millians OF dollars to the
often caused by the b%urrowing of animals,
or moro frequently fly rice fumes or open
ings through the levees for the purpose of
letting water into the rice fields.
Scarcely q spring passes that such crevas-
ses do not OCCUR from some such trjHinp
origin. The levee once broken, the waters
pour through. rapidly widening the breach,
and rnsh down the slope OF the river ridge
directly away from the river. On reaching
the swamp, the current ia broken and d.
verified and the waters, spreading up and
down stream, gradually rise back toward
the levees on either side., They pour also
through the swamp, and extend to the
ridges of n%eighborinR streams, flooding the
cultivated lands upon them. Thus il is
easy to see that, since the whole country
lies below the level of the river, if u ' way ia
once opened for the water into the country,
it may spread indefinitely and involve wide
spread ruin and destruction.