The Crevasses And The Floods

The literatuw of the nood which bas visited tbe iowlaadi of the southwest is volummous. The tottcm districts are not much harmed, but niany of the best sugar plantations are submerged, on whieh people have lost eattle, sheep and hogs and niany hundred thousand dollars worth of property, generally saving their horses and mules. The government has been liberal in the distribution of rations to the suffering, by which many have doubtless been kept f rom statvation, though the effect in some instances, may be demoralizing. A correspondent of the New York Herald has been recently making explorations in the waste of waters, and has written up bis observations, from which we gather some items. As indicating the hopef ui spirit of the planters in the Yazoo bottoms, he quotesthe letter of one of them to his Vicksburg merchant: While it is true that much loss will result from the drowning of hogs.cattle and a few mules and horses still I feel assured that all will yet be well, and that your boats will be taxed next winter to their utmost capacity to carry off the many thousand bales of cotton raised on the now apparently ruined plantations. By the great heigh ( water our lands have been freed ot what herelofore has been a curse to uf - the hogs. Eaeh planter has heretofore been put to the expense of keeping up fences to protect himself irom their lepredations at a cost that in ten years would pay for his lands. As for sufferng for want of food and the lives of ,he people being in danger, I can but hink that fears of the latter, and false statements with regard to the flrst, were solely designed to awaken tlie sympathies of a charitable and trustiug ptople in order to gratuitoasly gain what, il' they remain where they are, will be furnished them, to be paid for when the crops are raised. Between Vicksburg and BatonKouge the planters say the back water will not run ofï in less than two nionths' time, and even if a partial erop be made it will be so young as to attract the worm unless the season should prove to be an unprecedented one. Besides, it will be impossibte to plant corn so late in the season, as the sun will burn it up before it gets a foot high. The only crops that can be raised so late in the season are cow peas and hay. The great destruction of stock will also militate against them, though labor is pleatiful in Louisiana, there being a surplus of it 'under the exceptional circumstances. The free distribution of ration3 is diversely commented upon. It is generally conceded that it will have a demoralizing effect wherever carried extensively into practice. The better class of planters are free and loud in criticism of those who apply f or ratio g ïustead of taking care of their own negroes, for which they will all be reimbursed by collecting from the negro when the erop is made. General McMillan, the postmaster at New Orleans, who owns a lai'ge planta tion in Carroll parish, deplored the apiithy of the people and their cali for government aid. "There is not," said he, "a parish or county in the valley which is not rich enough in product to build its own levees." Others hold that the levee question, affecting as it does the prosperity of the entire country, is a subject of national importance. At Vicksburg boats and barges were constantly arriving from the flooded districts with horses, mules and oecasionally a few cattle. Their condition was pitiable in the extreme. Wild looking, uncared for, generally bearing the marks of hard if not se v ere usage, so hungry they prospected the very gang plank for forage on being driven ashore, the sight was calculated to awaken even a stoic's sympathies. Under a porch near the wharf boat, dragged there out of the way, lay a calf dying from exhaustion. Nobody paid any attention to it, nor, indeed, to the hungry, sufferering stock. Nobody thought of feeding them, and the conclusión was irresistible that these people are cruel to their stock . A mulé, they say, is generally broken down and wom out in three years. Cattle are entirely neglected and the hogs are abandoned to the tender mercies of the negroes. On the way from yicksburg to Natchez the same glassy sheet of water stretching far back into the country from either side of the river, dotted here and there by the same half submerged houses, the same isolated and broken lines of levee peeping out, upon which the cattle could be often seen standing, vigorously switching their tails to keep off the gnats while slowly dying of starvation. At every landing planters came on board, moving about from place to place on business errands, but no refugees or negroes. Below Vicksburg the scène of greatest desolation is transferred from the east to the west bank of the river an d the great houses embracing the entire parishes of Texas, Concordia, Madison, a portion of Carroll, Franklin and Catahoula, is all under water from the breaks that have occured at St. Joe, Milliken's Bend and other poiuts. The sugar district is thickly settled, covered with fine stock and sugar plantations, extending to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Heretofore this vicinity has been under water in many places, but not entirely, the land being comparatively high and well leveed. Yesterday morning it was first threatened by the water rising to within two inches of the top of the levee. A forcé of 200 men were at once set to work, who continued their labors until four o'clock in the morning, when it at last gave way. In three hours the whole country was submerged, the people flying from house to house calling for skiffs to come and take them off. By the breaks in the Point Copper levee, which occurred a fortnight ago, the parishes of West Baton Rouge, Iberville, part of Lafoarche, St. Mary's and :he Teche country have been swept by ;he flood. The fioods have also had their effect on the wild animáis. A merchaut livng at New Texas Landing told your correspondent that he had purchased nearly one thousand coon pelts within he past three weeks at ten cents each. They were all killed upon an island op)osite his residence, upon which the water is only a few inches deep, and every morning the air is still musical with the echo of the hunters' guns. Driven out of the swamps, where the coons' usual food is berries, grapes,&c, hey come there at night to fish for crayfish, which are so plentiful in that ocality as to i'onn a staple article of ood with the people. From the stunted trees and willows they put their )aws into the water, which are at once eized by the crayflsh, who catch a Tarar every time. , The deer are everywhere flocking to the uplands, and in he neighborhood of Vidalia and ïatchez herds of thirty or forty are requently seen in the neighborhood of iie river bank. The negroes are kiling them by dozens, although their aughter is contrary to the laws of oth states. They are in very poor j i-i-i ulij ■jiijMiiaiii N , lwtl f ceudition worn out by lack of foodaud chüled by the cold water. Severa! herds have swatu the river to the hi]l m the ueighborhood of Xatcbtz But lew beara are seen, as they can yet live and fand sustenance iu the tl 8naki are driven up to the mouudii and highlands of Mississippi in thousands The cottonwood logs swann with them. Moccasins, kiug and black snakes abound. The negroes are great fear of them and are very care ful to give thsm a wide berth. ■ Ml