The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-01
THE SINKING GULF COAST.
LOUISIANA STARTLED By THE RATE
OF THE LANDS SUBsIDENCE.


Gulf l. Encroaching Upon the
Land-New Orleans Not Likely 10
BE Affected SerIousIy-Enect Upon
the River improvements.
From the New York Sun.
New Orleans, Nov. 25-The Mississippi
river commission, which reached New
Orleans Nov. II. after its annual inspec-
ton of the levees and the work of river
| improvements, finds itself confronted by
an entirely new problem. a serious diff
Guilty which may interfere with the work
il has under way, and which. under all
| circumstances. demands a thorough ex-
/ aminatiOn-the reported sinking of the
Gulf coast. The theory that the land is
sinking, not only on the Gulf Of Mexico.
but also on nearly all other coasts. has
long been accepted by scientists, but the
rate of subsistence reported from HoI-
land Of less than one-tenth of an inch
a year, was SO slow as to create no ap-
prehension on the part of the present
generation. The rate at which the
/ ground is reported TO be sinking in Lou
isiana, however, is quite different from
the slow subsistence of the sluggish land
of the Dutch, and indicated that, in this
matter. as in all others, America is
] AAtNtD eANAiNNs tAlGE BttAt anu IdpLus
The report of the sinking of the Lou
I isiana coast was accepted, at first, by
4 Inc Mississippi river commission and
l the public generally as one of those sci
/ enti1c sensations that biologists delight
I IN. In the last few months, however, the
| report has been thoroughly confirmed and
/ verified from many points. The United
/ states engineers and the river commits
| sion now accept the theory that the land
/ IN Lower Louisiana is sinking at
| startling rate, meyer before reported; and
| they are compelled to face this fact
ana 10 determine 10 what extent II IS
/ likely to interfere with the work Of river
/ Improvement now under way.
If the sinking has been going on for
! some time, as seems certain, then the es-
] Inmates and calculations upon which the
government work is based are uncertain
or incorrect. This has been limited at by
| the outlet or antl-leVee men, although
/ they never seem to have understood what
was the cause of the trouble. They have
/ complained that the gauges or datum lines
/ by which the hight of the water in the
1 river is measured are incorrect, but they
| charge this to fraud, whereas the prob
ability is that it is due TO the sinking of
the Iand, carrying down with it in it's slow
and gradual subsistence the gauge or da-
| tum mark If this latter suppositiOn is
/ correct, II may explain. what has greatly
! puzzled the engineers. the fact that the
Hoods in the Mississippi seem to grow
higher and higher result which the
outlet advocates attribute to the levees.
the report of Maj. Quinn, the United
| states engineer in charge of the New Or
] ltells ulSlIlcl, Indue last month, was Spe-
enc on this point. Maj. Quinn's investi-
cations were entirely separate from those
of the Mississippi river commission, and
at point on the Gulf coast where the
| question could be thorouehiv tested Tho
gauge at the mouth of the Mississippi
! showed that the waters Of the Gulf had
| apparently risen one foot since 1877. AS
this rise was out of the question the diff
| ference could only be due to the subsi-
dence of the land. The records of the
! varying Gulf levels proved that the subsi-
dence had been checked and even re-
versed at times, but in the long run the
gains made by the Gulf indicated a steady
eneroachment of the water on the land
This report created a sensation at the
| tlme but since then confirmation has
come in from dozen points. showing that
the suDsldenee is general along the coast
or Louisiana and even far in the interior
/ but very irregular. In Terre Bonnie par
ish, the lands on Bayou Gallon, which
| during the period Immediately preceding
! the war raised the finest sugar cane in
| Louisiana, have long been abandoned in
consequence OF overflow due, the people
| DelleVed to the rising of the Gulf waters,
/ but really an effect of the sinking of the
/ land; and they are now covered with sea
/ water. On Bayou Dulac and other
| streams in lower Terre Bonnie the land
| which was deemed in old days too low for
| cultivation, being but two feet above the
CUR level, was covered with grass and
used as pasture for horses and cattle
| This land is now completely abandoned
] covered with a prairie tremblante." or
/ foating marsh, and given over to the
/ muskrat and the otter throughout this
I section are to be seen stumps of cypress
! wen below the water level, where the
! land has sunk with the trees on it. The
| islands along the Gulf coast Gallon Is
| land, Last Island. and others, formerly
| pleasure resorts, standing well above the
] water, have been abandoned for slime
| time, and are rapidly becoming marshes
/ standing several feet less out of water
| than OF old. This has been attributed to
! lhe WaShlng OF the waves over them in
! violent hurricanes; but there seems to be
/ every reason for not accepting this the
! DRY, IN view of the fact that some Of the
islands which We're protected and have es-
! capped the fury of the storms have suf-
| fered as much as the exposed ones Their
decay IS due, it is believed to the sinking
Of the land.
From the interior, north of Lake Pont-
chartraln, IN the parishes of Tangipahoa
ana St Tammany, has come proof posi-
! tive of altered levels. There, although
the change is less marked than on the
| coast, 1t produced several unfavorable re-
suits. There was the loss of agricultural
and pasture land which. after it had sunk
/ from one to four feet. could no longer be
| cultivated or used in any way. Another
erect eLS was sight current up stream in
! the MISSISSIPPI river during the season of
! low water Thus. the Gulf was eighteen
| inches higher than the Mississippi last
fall. This produced queer results for it
rendered the water so salty that ii in
! Jured the machinery of the sugar houses
J causing the formation of a white crust
/ on II. The sugar planters depend for their
/ water on the Mississippi, and the possi-
! bihty of the waters becoming salty seems
/ never TO have entered their minds.
All this evidence was so conclusive that
/ the Mississippi river commission and the
/ United States engineers now accept the
! theory of the subsistence of the land. How
| this is brought about is easily explained
and the city of New Orleans was made
well acquainted with it last year. A large
! tract of land, covering half a dozen acres
/ Immediately opposite the French market
and in the commercial center of the city
! began settling rapidly. An examination
! showed that this was due to the fact that
! the passage of trains had squeezed the
/ water from the soil. The land through
| out Southern Louisiana is super-saturat-
/ ed. 1t is like a mighty sponge. When the
/ water is squeezed out the sponge sinks
| and in similar manner the land sinks
! This process is continually under way
! the land becoming firmer and more solid
/ more condensed as it We're, and subsid-
/ ing.
! How long this has been going on is I'M
! known, but doubtless for centuries, and
/ it gives an entirely new geological expla-
/ nation of the origin of Lower louisiana
/ The theory of the Mississippi river build
( ing up land in the Gulf by the detritus and
/ alluVium it brings down from the states
| above, became not SO plain for