i66 SEA AXD LAND 



the action of the waves in times of storm, added to the work 

 naturally done by the river, operated rapidly to close the 

 opening. A method of meeting this difficulty has been found, 

 however, and has been successfully aj^plied to the delta 

 mouths of two great streams, the Danube and Mississippi. It 

 was first invented and applied in the European instance, but 

 it has been used with the greatest success by an American 

 engineer, Capt. James \\. Eads, in securing a deeper ship 

 channel leading to the port of New Orleans. 



In the method of improvement above referred to, the 

 boundary walls to the channel are continued for some distance 

 beyond the point to which they have attained in the natural 

 extension of the delta. They are in fact led across the mud 

 flat which forms beneath the sea beyond the edge of the 

 marshy land, until the sloping bottom has attained a sufficient 

 depth of water for the convenience of incoming ships. The 

 principal disadvantage of the method is found in the fact that 

 the sediments brought down by the river frequently settle 

 next to the artificial mouth, as they did in front of the natural 

 opening, so as to require a constant building of the jetties 

 towards the sea. There is, of course, a limit to the con- 

 venient extension of the stream mouth in this artificial 

 manner, but for years the scouring action of the current 

 deepens the water of its enforced channel, and so makes the 

 entrance and the path of the stream suitable for commercial 

 needs. In the course of time it will probably be necessary 

 to open another and shorter pathway of escape for the Missis- 

 sippi, or to provide an artificial entrance by means of a canal 

 leading from the river to the sea, but there seems no good 

 reason why this channel should not be so selected as to pre- 

 serve the city of New Orleans as the port for the sea-going 



