The Bolivar County Democrat. (Rosedale, Miss.) 1887-1969, 1903-04-04

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adopted by the engineers has been to
keep up swift flow of the water AT
every point, and thus prevent the de-
posting of mud and silt in the river bed,
and by this means keep tine river digging
out its channel aud sweeping the debris
into the sea.
This process is accomplished ty the
levees, which are embankments of earth
on both sides OF the river, so that they
confine the current and keep up an active
flow. 1t is wei, known that this con-
centration of the current increases the
swiftness Of the flow in such proper
ton that a correspondingly greater
quantity Of water, as we'll MS Of mud, is
carried out to sea. The primary effect
of the lcvees is to scour out the rivers
channel and make it by just SO much
better waterway for commerce, while
the secondary or incidental effect is to
protect the extensive and extremely fer
tile lands along the river from over
flow.
1t 10 true that the money spent by the
States and by individuals along the river
in The building of levees was and is in-
tended exclusively for purposes of pro-
lection; but the money spent i'll such
work by the Federal government has for
its primary and sole object the improv-
ing of the navigation of the river for
purposes of commerce. Fortunately,
the work done by the several States and
that accomplished by the United States
government thoroughly harmonize i'll
their results, however different the III
tention.
If the Mississippi River were provided
with channel two miles wide or Of
double its present width and capacity
from Cairo to the sea, the first effect
would be the filling up of it's bed until
conditions should arise that would force
the ohstructed current to begin to dig.
Then would 60 on the operations of
erosion, and deposition at the rivers
will, and there would soon be no reliable
channel for navigation. This sort of
work is seen i'll the river below the head
of the Passes, or below the point where
the levees end There the river, finding
its current choked and obstructed by the
solid body of sea water which it meets,
at once deposits its mud and so fills up
its outlets so that while the river above
the Passes is from 100 to 200 feet deep,
in the Passes, when left to themselves, it
is never more than eight to sixteen feet,
except III South Pass, where it is kept
open by the jetties and dredging to a
depth of not less than thirty feet for the
ingress and egress Of shirs.
The most superficial glance at map
OF the delta of Louisiana demonstrates
that the river is constantly building land
out into the sea, and by this process it
so fills up,its outlets that it periodically
makes new ones, but these are always
shallow, and are impossible Of use for
shipping of any consequence until they
are deepcned by artificial means. These
/ facts demonstrate that if any resort to
artificial outlets were made to relieve
the river of its excess of waters, there
would be the same. difficulty i'll keeping
them open, as is the,case with the nat
ural outlets Of the river. They would be
constantly at work da,nming up their
mouths.
But if the question of outlets is to be
discussed, it is plain they are needed
vastly more in the upper river than in
the lower. Although the river has risen
this spring to greater height on
the gauge than has ever before been
recorded in the history of the lower
river, with one single exception, the
levees III this section have stood the un-
usual test, while all the other serious
crevasses have been in levees above
Vicksburg. 1t should be plain, then,
good they must tap the river above
vicksburg, so as to save the Yazoo Bot.
tom in Mississippi, and the St. Francis
and White River lowlands in Arkansas.
Any such expedient would demand an
enormous expenditure for the construc-
ton of tke work, in the first place, and
for it's perpetual maintenance in the
second.
| 1t has also been proposed to construct
basins or reservoirs to hold back the
flood water until the dry season, and
then turn it loose gradually so As to
furnish means for navigation. A mo-
meut's consideration will show that the
reservoirs required to store up the vast
volume of the Mississippi's floods would
have to be numerous and ofimmerse
capacity. They would have to be locat-
ed in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio,
Tennessee, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri
Arkansas, and perhaps i'll other States.
The land required for these purposes
would be of great extent and cost i'm
mense amounts OF money, because it
would have to be purchased from pri-
vate owners.
The cost of effective outlets or of rescr-
voirs required to protect the country
from the Mississippi foods would be
great enough to confine the great river
from Cairo down to the sea between
walls OF granite The efficacy of levees
for the lower river SO far in a phenomey
nal food has been fully demonstrated,
Al, O,,EI 4 hot