836 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



OLD STUMP-WELLS IN THE MISSISSIPPI 



"BOTTOM." 

 Messrs. Editors : 



IT is a fact well known to all who have 

 made any study of the " Bottom," or 

 alluvial plain, formed during the lapse of 

 ages by the great Mississippi River, that 

 the river channel, or bed, is forever shift- 

 ing, and in its mighty contortions it has 

 moved laterally eastward and westward over 

 vast spaces. Many of the abandoned chan- 

 nels are now curved lakes, with no con- 

 nection with the river ; others, connected 

 with it more or less during floods, are called 

 " old rivers," So thoroughly the river does 

 its work in forming the land that, besides 

 these crescent-shaped lakes and old rivers, 

 there is little in view to indicate where 

 the bed of the river lay one hundred or 

 one thousand years ago. When the river 

 changes its channel, by suddenly or grad- 

 ually cutting through a point of land, or 

 when one chute of an island is closed by a 

 bar, a lake or an old river is formed ; but, 

 when the river shifts its position, by con- 

 tinued abrasion on one side, and by corre- 

 sponding deposit of sediment on the other, 

 the latter slowly but steadily rises to the 

 average height of the neighboring land, and 

 in a few years is covered by a heavy forest- 

 growth, and there is no visible sign left to 

 show that it has not been thus since the 

 creation, or at least since the Gulf of Mex- 

 ico deserted that particular point on its ever- 

 lasting retreat southward. 



The tract of land on which I reside, and 

 which I have owned for more than forty 

 years, was washed, up to about the year 

 1855, by the main body of the Mississippi 

 River, swinging around the western side of 

 a plano-convex-shaped island; at that pe- 

 riod three fourths of all the water of the 

 river passed my door, but about that time, 

 the exact year I do not remember, the chan- 

 nel began to change, and in a very few 

 years the main body of water was, and has 

 since then been, running down the piano 

 and eastward side of the island, and the 

 head of the western chute is largely ob- 

 structed by bars. Whether the bars formed 

 first, and forced the channel eastward, or 

 whether the change of the channel caused 

 the bars to form, has not, so far as I know, 

 been satisfactorily answered. At all events, 

 my land now lies on an " old river," which 

 is never entirely dry, although often very 

 nearly so, and the growing obstructions 

 threaten to cut me off, at no distant day, 

 from outside communication, at least by 

 water, except at very high stages. I will 



add, in passing, that it is in contemplation 

 by the National River Improvement Com- 

 mission (which is spending millions in the 

 interest of navigation, Avith no especial 

 thought as to riparian interests) to hurry 

 up this consummation by piling, willow-mat- 

 tressing, etc., so as to force the entire body 

 of water, even in its highest stages, through 

 the eastern or shorter chute. 



In addition to being located on an " old 

 river," my land lies, as I believe, just where 

 a river-formed lake existed at a remote pe- 

 riod, but which has in process of time, long 

 before memory goes, been filled up by de- 

 posits from overflows, until now it is some- 

 what higher than the general level of the 

 neighboring sections, and I will give my 

 reasons for so thinking as briefly as I can. 

 At certain periods of the year, as there are 

 no small running streams in this section, 

 cattle suffer from thirst, although the great 

 river runs by our doors, for then the stream 

 is low, and the banks are either precipitous, 

 or, when sloping, terminate in a quicksand, 

 in which many uncared-for cattle are lost 

 every year ; hence the necessity for abundant 

 wells and cisterns. 



Seeing some water standing in an old, 

 hollow cypress-stump, about four fee tin diam- 

 eter, the surface of which water was at least 

 fifteen feet above the surface of the river at 

 the time, I was curious enough to investigate 

 the matter. An outside rim of the stump, 

 about four inches in thickness, remained 

 sound, but the interior portion (all except a 

 hollow of about a foot in diameter, down 

 which I had observed the water) was com- 

 posed of dry-rotted wood, still clinging close- 

 ly in place. I had the rotted portion taken 

 out down to the surface of the water, and 

 the water pumped out, finding the reservoir 

 to extend down sixteen feet. In about six 

 hours the water had returned to its former 

 level. Pumping it out again, I had the rot- 

 ten wood removed ; this was done with very 

 little trouble. With a little more digging, 

 and removing the old wood, which had pre- 

 viously fallen to the bottom, I discovered 

 where the main roots of the tree started at 

 a distance of about seventeen feet below the 

 surface of the ground, plainly showing that, 

 when the tree first sprang from the seed, the 

 surface of the ground was many feet lower 

 than at present. After thoroughly clean- 

 ing out the well, I permitted the water again 

 to rise, and found it cool and wholesome, 

 with a slightly brackish taste, but not at all 

 offensive. 



Subsequent investigation showed me that 

 every hollow cypress-stump (and there are a 



