The wetlands of southern Louisiana and their drainage . reof such ever-increasing magnitude that there is every reason to believe that thework of completing these levees will be done in the immediate future. Promi-nent levee engineers who are acquainted with the problem believe that withthe completion of the levee system this whole area will be protected from over-flow of the Mississippi River. The above remarks apply to the alluvial sectionof the country, as very little land west of the Atchafalaya River is affected byMississippi overflow. Some of the larger streams, such as the Calcasieu and
The wetlands of southern Louisiana and their drainage . reof such ever-increasing magnitude that there is every reason to believe that thework of completing these levees will be done in the immediate future. Promi-nent levee engineers who are acquainted with the problem believe that withthe completion of the levee system this whole area will be protected from over-flow of the Mississippi River. The above remarks apply to the alluvial sectionof the country, as very little land west of the Atchafalaya River is affected byMississippi overflow. Some of the larger streams, such as the Calcasieu and theSabine, flood the alluvial flats of land immediately along their banks to a depthof perhaps 4 feet, but as a whole the wet prairie lands of this western portionof the coast are free from river overflow. Tidal Overflow. The daily range of tide along this portion of the Gulf coast is quite small, theaverage being from to foot. However, as is true of all low, flat coastsbordering on wide areas of comparatively shallow water, heavy winds which. 20 BULLETIN 71, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. blow for any considerable lengtb of time directly on shore may cause a rise ofseveral feet in the water. Such rises are commonly called storm tides. Theireffect is so great that often they reverse the ordinary tide, and the maximumheight of water may be reached at the usual time of low tide. Storms of thischaracter usually occur during the months of August, September, and October,and are known as tropical hurricanes. Those that are severe enough to causelarge rises in the tide occur at comparatively long and irregular they will affect only a comparatively small portion of the coast line,while at other times a general rise of several feet will be recorded all along thecoast line, with a limited region where the storm center strikes the coast ex-periencing a tide of perhaps twice the height of the general rise. One of themost characteristic as well as one of the m
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