Year: 1859

vi AHNELS VI THE VI lsslSslPPl. .--lne
difference OF level between high and low
water st Cairo is fifty feet. The width
and depth of the river from Cairo and
Memphis TO New Orleans is not material
ly increased, yet immense additions are
made to the quantity of the water in the
channel bv large streams from both the
eastern and western sides Of the Missis-
sppi The question naturally arises, what
becomes of this vast added volume of
water2 II certainly never reaches New
Orleans, and as certainly does not evapo-
rate and of course it is not confined TO
the channel OF the river, for it would rise
far above the entire region south of US


If a well is sunk anywhere in the Ar
kansas bottom, water is found as soon as
the water level of the Mississippi isresched
When the Mississippi goes down, the
water sinks accordingly in the well. The
owner of saw mill, some twenty miles
from the Mississippi, in Arkansas, dug
well to supply the boilers of his engine,
during the late flood. When the water
receded, his well went down till his hose
would no longer reach the water, and
finally his well went dry, He dug ditch
to an adjacent lake, to let the water into
his we'll the lake was drained, and the
we'll was dry again, having literally drank
ten acres of water in less than week.


The inference is that the whole valley
Of the Mississippi from its banks to the
highlands, on either side, rests on porous
substratum which absorbs the redundant
waters, and thus prevents that degree of
accumulation which would long since have
swept New Orleans into the Gulf but for
this provision of nature, to which alone
her safety is attributable. In fact if the
alluvial bottoms Of the Mississippi were
like the shore of the Ohio, the vast plain
from Cairo to New Orleans would to-day
be part and parcel OF the Gulf Of Mexico,
and the whole valley d fresh water arm of
the sea. Were the geological character
of the valley different, the construction of
levees, confning the water OF the Missis-
sppi to its channels. would cause the rise
in tho river to become so great at the
South, that not Sufficient levees could be
built. The current would be stronger,
and accumulation Of water greater as the
levees are extended north of US.


Such results were, reasonably enough,
anticipated but if the water, instead of
breaking the levees, permeates the porous
soil, and the overflow is really beneath the
surface OF the swamp. Such, it seems to
us, are the wise provisions Of natural laws
for the safety and ultimate reclamation oil
the rich country south of us. We believe
that the levee system will be successful
and that the object of its adoption will be
obtained. The porousness of the material:
nsed in making them, has caused most il
not all the crevasses. Men may deem il
a superhuman task to wall in the Missis'
sippi from Cairo to New Orleans, but our
leveeS are the work of pigmies when con-
trasted with the dykes of Holland. The
flood tide OF the Mississippi is but ripple
on the surface of CLASSY pool compared
with the ocean billows that dash against
the artificial shores of Holland. The
country to be reclaimed by our levees-
all of which will not, for fifty years cost
the people as much as those of the Dutch
when originally bailt-would make one
hundred such kingdoms as that over which
Bonaparte once yielded the sceptre.