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Show THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. Qeaer Freaht of the Current Whlrb I Kaally lleBerleH. "I have been much Impressed with the Importance of small things In 1st years." aald an old steamboat man to s New Orleans Times-Democrat reporter, re-porter, "and the Mlaslsslppl river hat furnished me with rather good example. exam-ple. I ran understand now why Cae-ear Cae-ear looked out upon Ihe Nile In such rurious amazement and offered till that he atood for to the Egyptian prleat If he would thow him the source of Ibat wonderful river. Hut the antlca of the Nile look like Insignificant nothings noth-ings to me when compared with the atrange conduct of the atream that ooxea out of the earth at Itasca and hurrle on Itt murky nnd devious wsy towsrd the Oulf of Mexico Towns slong tha Mlsslaalppl that once stood right on tb brink of the river have been Isolated even In my day. snd ther are, too, all along Ihe courae of th stream little empires III view whnr th river haa encroached upon email centers of population, finally eating the earth away and forcing the In-babltnnta In-babltnnta to teek other quarters There are hunilredt of three placet that are a I moat forgotten now, even by the men who are conatanlly on tha river. What brings about these vlo-lent vlo-lent changes along the hanks of the river? Not floods. It la Just the ordinary ordi-nary dolnga of the atream. In the first place th current of th Mississippi It ; wonderfully twlft, and th sediment deposited at any point where resist- anc to th flow I offered I very i great Tie a string to the neck of a bottle and sink It with th mouth of f th bottle up snd open. If held In on plac where th flow la normal, In an j extremely short period of time the bottle will fill with aedlment. Stretch a net acroa th river, a net to finely woven that nothing but th pur water wa-ter of th river can paaa through, and on account of th rapidity of th flow and th great nett of the deposit ot sediment, almost In a twinkling the ! river would be dammed at that point Expert have admitted this. This ; brings me to the point of my narra- tlve. Th flow of current Is frequently ( Interfered with by sunken boats, per- , bap by a Jackataff slicking up above tha turface. The current It diverted by degree, generally touching the far aids of the atream, a mile from the point where It again meet resistance and Immediately begin t the building of a tandhnr. I have teen a thousand example of thl sort during my career ca-reer on the river, and 1 have known of instances where Ihe root of a Ire or th mere twig ot a willow have brought about almllar conditions. i These thlnga have tended to make a riddle out of Ihe river, yet th stream, after awhile, will be handled ao a to undo all that It haa accomplished." 'j |
