Year: 1874

low that he can control the laws of natur,


as to the deposit of sediment, nor preven


water from running down stream, nor max
1 1t run up stream, as we will see when ",


come to the bar.


The above propositions and reasons there


from brings the author to the bar, and ar,


intended to establish the fact that he ca,


increase the depth of the water double OF


treble, by jetties. Aud as current dependl
only on depth he then has double or treble
| current, and as the amount of sediment


the water will hold in suspension, depends
wholly on rapidity of current, he there and
then has the three grand elements of cue
GEES, viz depth, current. and all the matter
in suspension; and as the gulf presents Nc


barrier, rapidity " i'll carry It all, water and
sediment into the depths of the guilt, leav
ing clean washed bar of fifty or sixty feet
l have said these propositions are falla.
ciOus. II they are not, then the result pre-


dicted is only question Of time to be
reduced to certainty. Let US now see how
it will work at the bar.


There was time when the bar was
further up the river than it is now, by
miles In the same proportion the banks Of
the river were also higher up, and have


been for ages back to the present time
gradually receeding and protruding into the
gulf. What is now the outer or guilt crest
Of the bar, was once deep gulf water, and
the crest was far up the river. But the
waters have for ages been gradually
adding to and projecting the shores
into the gulf, and exactly in the
same ratio, and no faster have thew
taken the mud from the inner or
river angle of the bar and depositinp it on
the outer or gulf angle, leaving the distance
same-say four or five miles, This has been
the work Of nature, and, as upon inquiry,
not contined to the Mississippi, but q natu-
raj incident to all rivers. that enter into
another body of water. And the reasons
of it are evident. The rivers would not run
into the gulf or ocean at all if they were
not higher than the ocean; for it is an axiom
that water will not run up hill, no more will
it run on level. 1t can only run down
stream. This is natures law. Being higher
than the gulf, it runs down stream to the
guilt The further from the gulf, the greater
the elevation and greater velocity Of cur
rent. If at the mouth it met q perfect bar.
rier, it's course would be stopped, and as
the waters accumulated from up stream
pressure, they would mount up If it meet
an imperfect barrier like the body of the
water of the gulf, its course is only re-
tarded " bile it mingles with the gulf, and
disposition to rest and equilibrium is pro-
duced. In proportion to this quiescent
state, it deposits its sediment. The greatest
retardation and tendency is always at the
very place that we call the bar Of river,
and there it deposits its greatest amount of
sediment, rolling down the outside crest or
angle, filing up the gulf, and relieving the
inside crest or angle exactly as fast, and no
fas ter, than it fills up the outside.


But Mr.. Eads thinks he can beat nature
at her own work, and in her own way. for
he proposes nothing different, but identi-
pQIIV n1v,h ho
little more wood and stone, in a shorter
space of time than she. Nature has been
always building and extending the banks
OF the river, by logs, brushwood and earth,
encrOaching on the gulf; yet she has never
done it at the expense Of the five miles of |
raised earth called bar. She never removes
the middle OF the bar before it's time comes.
She begins on the inside, making it all, in |
succession, pass over the middle to the out |
side; then the middle becomes the inside,
and is rolled over another middle, and be- |
comes outside. This is universal, all over |
The earth.


But Mr.. Eads' superiority over nature |
consists in this: He proposes to remove the |
inner bar and middle both at the same |
lime. and as lie don't propose to annihilate |
me outer crest, but will have it somewhere,
le ought to see that his outer must become
Doth an inner and middle in turn.
Suppose he runs out parallel jetties 1900
eet apart, then the same amount of water
hat now debOuches where the earth banks
lease must pass out where the jetties cease.
10 get out of the smaller space it must have
much swifter current, or it's surface must
elevate itself, for the same amount of fluid |
AN not pass out of small pipe as q large
me, in the same time, and same velocity,
This velocity can not be obtained but by
still greater elevation of the water fur.
her up the river, so as to give it fall, for it
must be pushed out by the accumulating
yaters behind, or be drawn by the gulf.
me gull does not suck. The greater eleva-
ion behind can not be had but by raising
ne banks or levees to contain it, and earth
nough, nor labor, or money could be found
0 do that. Then the consequence would
70 that the waters above would break over
he levees and convert the whole country
lto gulf.


Then, if it rise at the bar it would like
use back the water far up the river and
ause general overflow. Nor could it get
ne benefit of all the rise, for as the water
'Ould be affected at the other passes each
'ould claim its portion. The consequence
Ould be in either case it would overflow
le whole lower country. or refuse to do
ther, and at once, coeval with Mr.. Eads
ork commence to establish an equilibrium, |
nd &C on exactly as it has done for ages,
lth the exception that in high waters like
le present much more of an overflow than
~ have now. This would happen until
e river took its time to shoal places out
de the jetties, just as it is now, from
here the earth banks cease.


Yours, respectfully,


w 7 noO