The success of the military canal across the peninsula, by which it is aimed to make Vicksburg an inland town, depends upon the formation which the excavation shall lay open. The labors of the United Slates Commission throw some light upon the general subject. The formation of the Mississippi valley bottom, or sub-soil, as shown in the very thorough and elaborate report of the above Commission, reveals that underneath the ordinary soil is a bed of hard blue clay. In this clay the river flows. Its bed is as solid as rock. Centuries of wear make no impression on this singular formation. The river at low water is entirely in this clay canal, and is as solidly and firmly inclosed in it as it would be by walls of stone. If the Vicksburg “Cut-Off” should prove to have underlying the soil a level pan or plain of this clay, the effect of the Cut-Off will probably be only to cause a partial flow of the river through it during high water, without any permanent deepening in the clay, and on a relapse of the river to a low stage of water, the entire flow will be by Vicksburg, as heretofore. This will be the result, unless it should happen that the neck of land is entirely composed of the river deposit, to a depth equal to the depth of the water in the river, in which case the flow will sweep its way across the neck, wear out a deep, straight channel and leave Vicksburg an inland city.
Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, IL