Year: 1871

Captain CoWdon claims that to turn the


river, or portion Gift, into Lake Borgne,


would lower the water at New Orleans
fourteen feet. This is 8 grand mistake,
and If he viii study the matter little he
will soon become satisfied that he is
wrong, The relief TO New Orleans could
only be 10 proportion to the difference In
the distance from New Orleans to the deep


water Of the Gulf by the two routes. Lake


Borgne has only 8 depth of twelve feet,
and at Ship Island the depth is only some
twenty-seven feet. How much further out
you would have to go to find water two
hundred feet. do not know, but GER
tsinly some miles. The depth OF
the water in the river at New Orleans Is
given at one hundred and thirty-seven
feet, snd at the Stewart plantation the bed
Of the river must be st least one hundred
feet below the bed of Lake Borgne, and
consequently the river would have TO
plow out bed or channel through the
sand or mud of the bed of the lake at least
to that depth. This must be done before
be could hope to give New Orleans the
full benefit of this outlet. When this bed
wRs marked out he would find that he had
q river channel of abOug the same length
as the present one. To test this, let the
reader get map of the mouth of the river,
and with q string describe q circle, max
ing New Orleans or the Stewart plsnta-
tion the center and the mouth OF the river
the outside of this circle, and he will fnd
that he is not much outside of Ship
Island. The same facts would sp-
ply to any attempt to turn the river
into LAKE Ponchsrtrsin, Bsrstsris
Bsy or any other point except st Bayou
PlsQuemine. The same Illustration, with
q circle, will show what each point would
accomplish. I do no not deny but that
an outlet into either Lake POntohartrain
or Lake Borgne would be great relief to
New Orleans in front and TO the coast
generally. But either one will fill up
rapidly If large amount of the muddy
matter of the river is turned into them.
and then the drainage of New Orleans
would be that much more difficult. The
State of Louisiana must determine either
to abandon the east side of the river, and
leave the west side alone, or else turn the
entire river, or as much as possible, out
through Bayou Plsquemine


The point upon which I should join
issue with the Captain, most decidedly is
on his proposition to divest the tribu-
tsries. This is the worst and most vul-
nerable feature of his entire article, and
q point upon which have never failed to
cure the most skepticsl by one or two
illustrations. If Captain Cowden has
studied the Mississippi river and the flow
Of water, he knows that the slope of the
river, or any other water course, decreSs-
es wherever any addition is made to its
volume, unless there is some countersct-
ing cause. The Missouri gives the Mis-
sissippi its character Of muddy water,
causing banks snd rapid current. The
Missouri has q slope or fall of nearly one
foot to the mile Just before It enters the
Mississippi. From that point to Cairo
the river has a slope of seven inches to
the mile; from Cairo to Helena some four
to Eve inches; from Helena to Napoleon
less than four inches; from Napoleon to
VicksbuTg three inches, and below Red
river only two inches. Why Is this7
Simply because the larger body of water
scours out its bed with less slope than the
small one. The Arkansas has a slope of
near one foot to the mile. Divert any of
these tributaries, and the river would &C.
quire the same slope that il had above; or
suppose all the tributaries, including the
Ohio, could be diverted, the lower portion
of the river would rapidly acquire the
same slope as from the mouth OF the Mis-
souri TO Cairo, and the lower portion of
the river wOnld be wonss oVeTfo wed than
now. To illustratrste this, Captain, take
a land chain and g measuring rod and 20
to the head of your beloved GsyOsO creek,
and, starting at the head, measure one
hundred feet and note ths fall; then the
second hundred feet, and so on until it is
lost in your besutiful Wolf, and note if
each succeeding hundred feet has not less
slope or inclination than the previous one,
unless there should happen to be some
in the soil. Then inquire what
makes this difference, and you must sd-
NIT that it Is the additional water that
flows into the channel. from the hill-sidss,
rs you come toward the mouth. Apply
common sense" and the Mississippi |
ceases 20 be mystery. Yours, etc,


JAMES B. MILES.