Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Never the Twain

"In the space of one hundred and seventy six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over a mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oölitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-pole. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." (Mark Twain, from Life on the Mississippi.) (Quoted on tOC.)

3 comments:

Alex said...

I can see that a river of that length could change considerable every few years. Imagine how many meanders are ready to cut through and leave an ox bow lake.

By the same token, as meanders bow out, they must add to the mileage. Surely the net gain can't be much.

In Twain's time though I can see it being a result of revision of maps and improvement in surveying technique.

Bert said...

I just knew this was from Clemens long before reaching the end of the paragraph. Such an inimitable style!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yeah, he was unique.