1884. 83 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Sci. 



head-waters of the Missouri, if all the resources of that great area are 

 to be brought out. It might, of course, be a question, whether this 

 arid area could be more usefully employed if put into crops than as 

 used at present for a grazing ground. Still the arid region lies at the 

 headwaters of such rivers as the Arkansas, Red River, etc., where 

 there is no great surplus of water in the streams themselves, where 

 their flow is constant and rarely attended with floods of any magni- 

 tude. Only in the valley of the Mississippi, the great oscillations in 

 the flow of water take place. It is entirely different with the tribu- 

 taries from the eastern slope. Thus the Ohio has been, and might 

 still be, considered a grand channel of commerce, but it has now be- 

 come almost worthless on account of the oscillations of the stream, 

 and railroads, built along its banks, are entirely supplanting the 

 cheaper form of transport by navigation. These rivers, the Ohio, 

 Illinois, Wabash, Kanawha, Monongahela, Alleghany, Cumberland, 

 Tennessee, etc., throw into the Mississippi basin an enormous amount 

 of surplus water to produce devastating floods. The plan proposed 

 by Major Powell will not therefore afford adequate relief. No sys- 

 tem of irrigation, merely from the western tributaries of the Missis- 

 sippi, will affect the problem, while, in regard to the eastern, no feasi- 

 ble method — such as constructing vast storage reservoirs near their 

 head-waters — can be devised or carried out, with any sum which even 

 the nation can command. The subject must, therefore, be attacked 

 simply as a problem in hydraulic engineering. The beneficial con- 

 sequences, from a successful restraint of the flow of the river, would 

 be almost incalculable, in preventing the present devastation, and in 

 converting the stream into a stable channel of commerce, to serve as 

 an outlet of the surplus products of the Mississippi Valley. The in- 

 habitants of all parts of the country must be more or less concerned 

 in the ultimate solution of this question. If Mr. Elseffer can propose 

 appropriate methods, and can show that the present plans are falla- 

 cious, he will be a benefactor not only to that portion of the United 

 States, but to the whole country. 



Mr. Elliott desired a clearer explanation of the statement of the 

 author that, even if the flow of the river should be rendered straight 

 and uniform by the present plan, the stream would soon resume its 

 former condition. 



Mr. Elseffer promised to give a full explanation of this point in a 

 succeeding paper. 



April 14, 1S84. 

 The President, Dr. J. S. Newberry, in the Chair. 

 Forty persons were present. 



