For these reasons, therefore, I contend, that there can be no injurious ef fects produced on the channel of a river by a cut-off, properly made, nor can the danger of overflow be increased. On the contrary, the effects produced are altogether of a useful and beneficial character.

The reverse of this plain and simple principle has been again, and recently, urged as right; and the assertion reiterated, that a cut-off serves only to relieve the upper lands by submerging the lower. That this is an error needs little demonstration.

A bend, in any river, must check the velocity of its current, by the obstacles it throws in its way; and, to overcome these, requires a greater head, or rise, in the waters above. But a cut-off, which affords a free vent for the water, will discharge the same quantity at its lower cross-section, where it meets the main river again, as at the upper end, with this self-evident advantage, that it requires no extra swell, or elevation of the water above, to force it.

B

E

A

For instance: if bend CE D were formed in a straight river, A B, which discharges a certain quantity per second, its operation must be a decrease in the current, and consequent elevation of the water above the bend, to produce the required velocity, and its removal could not, certainly, change the water surface at D, the natural channel above and below the bend being the same.

What is true of a bend, is equally so of a dam, placed across a river; it elevates the surface of the water above, subjects the lands to floods, unknown before, and decreases the current. By removing this dam we relieve the country above, but certainly cannot submerge that below; unless the removal is done suddenly, during very high water, when the river above is unusually swollen.

It is, therefore, utterly erroneous to suppose the Red river and Raccourci cut-offs can have produced the results attributed to them, or have gratuitously aided mistaken seers, by fulfilling false and impossible prophesies.

As the water accumulates in the channel of a river, and its surface rises, filtration, which is so injurious to the fertility of the adjacent lands, increases also. Whatever, therefore, tends to give a free vent to the water, increases its velocity and deepens its channel, must, also, tend to lower its surface and diminish filtration; and, consequently, not only lessens the danger of overflow, but is otherwise highly beneficial to the lands along its banks.

The more winding the course of a river is, the more irregular and liable to continual change is the channel; for the current is ever washing away the concave bank of its curves, and depositing its materials along its bed. The more direct and uniform breadth the course of a river is, the less resistance does it offer to the current, and the more uniform is its velocity, and the more regular and less liable to change is its channel.

The fact that a river sometimes makes a cut-off through the narrow neck which separates the two bends, and thereby returns to its more natural course from which some accidental obstruction first caused it to deviate, is a sufficient proof that they cannot, of themselves, be injurious; for such cut-offs are attended by no evil consequences, except such as may arise from their being made in time of flood by nature, and the river not being judiciously guided in its operation by the aid of man.

If made at once in time of flood to its full cross-section, when the river above is filled with an unusual accumulation of water, it is very possible that the sudden influx of so large a body of water coming upon the reach below with an increased velocity, may be productive of some temporary, though serious, damage. But if made during the low stage of the river, no possible injury could arise from it—but, on the contrary, much benefit. It would leave full time to prepare the new channel before the time of high water, so that when it did come, the river would find a deeper channel, a freer vent, and an increased velocity to relieve it from the volume of water coming down from above, to prevent its accumulation and to remove all danger of overflow in the reach above and render it utterly impossible in that below.

Much also depends upon the way in which the cut-off is made. If it be made with so little regard to the object sought to be accomplished, as, for instance, to cause it to make a considerable angle with the reach below the same evil intended to be removed would soon re-appear. The current from the cut-off rushing against the opposite bank would continually wash away its materials and at once commence the formation of a new bend. The velocity of the current would be checked, and the water finding no freer vent than before, would accumulate in the reach above and still expose the adjacent country to the danger of overflow and the banks below to destruction. If, however, the cut-off be made so as to form as nearly as possible a straight line with the reach below and above, the object intended would be accomplished, the check imposed upon the waters above by the bend would be removed, a free vent would be opened for their more rapid passage, all danger of an overflow above at an end, and the mischief arising from filtration considerably diminished.

There are two other objections made to cut-offs, which require but a brief notice.

1. Cut-offs, by shortening and straightening the channel of a river, increase its fall in the same distance and thereby add to its velocity, so as to interfere with its navigation.

2. The materials which the river washes down, when it makes the cutoff, accumulate in the reach below and form shoals.

The character of the Mississippi gives a complete answer to these objec tions and renders them entirely invalid. In the first place, from the point where the danger of overflow begins to the mouth of the river, within which distance alone cut-offs may be considered necessary, the fall is comparatively very slight and gradual-the country being elevated only a few feet above the level of the gulf. Such being the fact, no cut-off made within that distance could interfere seriously, if at all, with the navigation. In the second place, the bed of the Mississippi within the same distance being composed of light, alluvial soil, the more direct and regular the channel is made, and the more the velocity of the current is increased, the less danger is there of the formation of shoals or change in the bed of the river. Shoals or bars are most generally found where the current crosses from one concave bank to another, above and below islands, or where the the breadth of the river is great, but never in a straight reach of proper breadth.

From the foregoing we may draw the following inferences:

That cut-off's improve not only that part of the river where they are judiciously executed, but operate very beneficially throughout its whole course their tendency being to accelerate the discharge of water, thereby lowering the bed and surface of the river and preventing deposits of the heavy materials which the river brings from above, and that they reduce the floods in height and render them of shorter duration, while they greatly diminish filtration. ALBERT STEIN.

Mobile, July, 1850.

ART. IX. PROGRESS OF THE SOUTH AND WEST.

1. CHARLESTON, S. C.*

ITS HISTORY, TRADE, COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, EDUCATION, HEALTH STATISTICS, ETC.

THE late official publication, by the city council of Charleston, edited by Drs. Dawson and Dessausure, to which we have, on one or two occasions, referred, contains a mass of information, in regard to the population and resources of that city, never before collected, and of inestimable value. We shall present to our readers a digest of the most important contents of the volume, regretting, at the same time, that its authors did not go more fully into those comparisons with other cities, and of epoch and epoch, which are among the chief sources of value in these census records. Mere tables have but little importance. The work is, also, more incomplete than a city like Charleston should have furnished, as we particularly note under "crimes," and under "education," "taxes,' expenses of civil administration," "valuation of property," "capital," etc., though of greatest value, have hardly been touched. We also object to a want of independence in following, so minutely, the outline and plan, and even the defects, of Mr. Shattuck's Boston census. At the same time, the many striking merits and great labor of the undertaking, are readily acknowledged, and we have been pressing upon our municipal authorities the importance of a similar publication here, with some hope, at last, of success.

TABLE OF POPULATION.

99 66

The tables show that the largest portion of the population is native, being 58 per cent.; the proportion of foreigners slightly exceeds those born in the United States-but out of Charleston. In Boston, the native born are but 35 92 per cent., and of foreign birth, 23.70 per cent In Charleston, 17 per cent. of foreign population were not naturalized. The white male population of the city has always exceeded the female, except in 1820 and 1830. The reverse is the case in the colored population. The productive class, or those between fifteen and sixty, in Charleston, is as favorably shown, as in the other American cities, except Lowell. The number of dwelling houses in the city in 1820, was 2,336; in 1830, 2,481; in 1-40, 2,804; in 1848,3,147; of which 358 are stores wholly. The following table exhibits a state of things highly prosperous in Charleston:

* The reader will find, in our first eight volumes, a great many articles upon Charleston, pre

pared with inuch care.

The water in Charleston is bad, which makes cisterns generally resorted to. In periods of drought, and when these fail, things are in no enviable state, and fierce conflagrations sometimes rule. An artesian well was attempted in 1823. In 1847 another was bored, 323 feet, and abandoned for want of success. been re-commenced, but with what prospects we have not learned.

es.

CLASSES OF POPULATION.

It has

The following table exhibits the number and proportions of the different classThe unmarried men, over fifteen, were 2,571, or 1 in 5.5 of the whole population; the married 2,053, or 1 in 6.9; and the widowers 180, or 1 in 787. The unmarried women, over fifteen, were 1,760, or 1 in 80 of the whole population; the married 2,119, or 1 in 6.6; and the widowed 887, or 1 in 16:

Ages. Condition. Over 15, unmarried.......

Number. In each 100. Number. In each 100. Number. In each 100.

43.04

The excess of widows over the widowers is very large, being 887 of the former to 180 of the latter. This, however, does not appear to be peculiar to Charleston, as will appear from Mr. Shattuck's census of Boston.

The tables of PAUPERS Show that the expense of supporting them has diminished from $100,707.34, for the five years ending 1825, to $58,789.37 in the same period, ending 1849, while the difference in the number has varied little. The labor of these people, employed upon cracking stones for street paving, almost pays the entire expense of their maintenance.

EDUCATION.

The list of free school pupils is 394, amount expended for them $3,900, average to scholar $10, average attendance five years. These are valuable schools, but they are scarcely adequate to the wants of the city. Private teachers, however, abound. There is an admirable high school, established in 1859, with an average of 130 to 150 scholars. It is endowed with $1,000 per annum, for a hundred years, by council. There are several public libraries in Charleston-the Apprentices', with a fine hall; the Mercantile, and the Charleston Library Society-the last named being the oldest and best.

The old CHARLESTON COLLEGE, for which, from all the associations of our younger years, we entertain an attachment which grows stronger as years advance, was chartered in 1791. For a long time it was but a grammar school. It was reorganized for collegiate purposes, and, having fallen through, was resuscitated in 1837, chiefly, if we remember rightly, through the exertions of Henry L. Pinckney. The common council have taken the institution in hand, and are chargeable with its expenses beyond tuition receipts, which excess has, hitherto, been quite considerable. It is now flourishing, with an able faculty, several new professorships-and the number of students gradually, but steadily, increasing. The annual rates are too high to diffuse the advantages of the college as widely as should be. They are $80 per annum, though the best schools in the city receive even more.*

*This institution has, of late, been greatly improved; extensive and additional wings are about to be added to the main building, and the front to be adorned by a colonnade of lenic onker; another professorship has also been established, entitled the chair of "Intellectual Philosophy and Greek Literature." Its condition is most flourishing.

COMMERCE.

There are lines of two steamships running to New York, two to Philadelphia and one to Havanna; eleven sailing ships, two barques, eight brigs and five schooners, to New York; three barques and three brigs, to Boston; three barques, three brigs and three schooners, to New Orleans; two brigs and nine schooners, to Philadelphia; six schooners, to Baltimore, etc. There are eighteen full branch pilots, eight second branch, and nine pilot boats. The tonnage from 1800 to

1805 was:

That from 1843 to 1849, shows a woful falling off-but then the years above were of extraordinary commercial prosperity.

There is a splendid dry dock, Gilbert's patent, owned by James Marsh. The largest vessels, cargoes and all, are taken up in two to three hours, and in four years 169 vessels have been served, 39 being ships and barques, and 42 brigscharge forty cents the ton without cargo, eighty cents with cargo, ten cents per day the ton for use of dock, etc.

In sixteen years forty-one vessels have been wrecked on the coast of South Carolina and the Charleston bar, of which thirteen were ships and barques.

We have published, as our back volumes will show, very full statistics of the exports of rice, cotton and lumber, from Charleston. We give, however, at the end of this article, the exports of cotton and rice, drawn from the elaborate and laborious tables of the census.

The crops of SEA ISLAND COTTON have decreased, from an average of about 35,000 bales in 1820, to an average of 12,000 or 23,000 during the last ten years. Of this, Charleston received about two-thirds and Savannah the rest. The total rice crop of Carolina reaches an average of 130,000 tierces, of which Charleston receives all, except 1,000 or 1,500 tierces going to Georgetown. The Georgia crop averages 35,000, and the North Carolina 7,000 tierces.

The average importation of corn into Charleston, is about 490,000 bushels, of which the railroad now brings one-half from the interior of the State. Importations of oats average 59,000 or 69,000 bushels. Average bales hay 20,000 to 25,IMPORTS sugar, average hogsheads 8,000, tierces 200, barrels 2,000, boxes 1,000; Molasses, hogsheads 5,000 (of late, barrels 5,000; average coffee, bags 25,000; salt, sacks about 100,000, and 20,000 bushels.

033.