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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ess to so act, a flood would finally reduce itself to an insignificant 

 rise of water. 



The following table may yield additional information concerning 

 flood conditions : 



Station. 



Cairo 



New Madrid 



Memphis 



Helena 



Arkansas City 



Greenville 



Vicksburg 



Natchez 



Red River Landing 



Baton Rouge 



Carrollton 



2« 



Above Danger 

 Line 1903. 



At or 

 Abore. 



50.60 ft. 



39.50 



40.60 



51.00 



53.00 



49.10 



51.80 



50.40 



50.00 



40.00 



19.40 



24 days 



53 



54 



67 



82 



42 



45 



5 Feet 

 Above. 



8 days 



8 



13 

 22 

 42 

 12 

 21 



Levees were constructed by the early settlers of Louisiana about the 

 year 1717 near Xew Orleans. In 1844 the right bank of the river 

 in this state was embanked and many other isolated levees were in 

 existence, especially along the Yazoo basin front. The average height 

 of the Louisiana levees was four feet. Through the years up to 1883, 

 there seems to have been a constant agitation of the question of levee 

 building. .Riparian states, districts and owners formed committees 

 and boards, taxed the protected lands or the products of these lands 

 and in general managed to put their constituents under a heavy burden 

 of debt. In 1858 a tax of 10 cents per acre was demanded on all lands 

 which were freed from inundation, and such lands as bordered the river 

 were often subjected to a tax of 25 cents per acre. In 1865 a board 

 was constituted with a revenue derived from a tax on cotton of 1 cent 

 per pound. In the year 1882, a flood greater than any previously ex- 

 perienced overflowed the entire basin and destroyed most of the levees 

 then existing. The Mississippi River Commission, created a few years 

 before, now entered upon its work at an opportune time. With the 

 landowners disheartened, their labors resulting in little gain, their 

 money invested in levees swept away, the allotments of the commission 

 were enough to revive the courage of the riparian proprietors. There 

 has been a steady gain in the protection of the alluvial basin since the 

 creation of this commission. At present the levee system comprises 

 about 1,500 miles of structure and is 71 per cent, completed. 



The height of the levees is a varying one. If the levee is built on 

 the immediate banks of the stream (Fig. 3), which is the highest part 



2 High water, 1903, and low water, 1895, are reckoned from the Memphis 

 datum. The numbers are, roughly, seven feet too high for Gulf levels as the 

 base. 



