78 HAUPT — THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER PROBLEM. [Feb. 19, 



the channel ; Provided, further, That the office, clerical and trav- 

 eling expenses and salaries of the Mississippi River Commission may 

 be paid from this appropriation. 

 ''Approved, March 3, 1891." 



From this law it appears that, unless the levees are beneficial to 

 the navigation, there is no warrant for the application of Govern- 

 ment funds to their construction and maintenance ; hence it happens 

 that there is great difference of opinion as to the results produced 

 by them, and it is strenuously urged, doubtless in good faith, by 

 those on whom the burden of levee construction falls so heavily, 

 that the river bed is not rising, nor is the channel shoaling, while 

 on the contrary the actual and carefully conducted surveys made by 

 the Commission indicate an unmistakable reduction in the depth 

 and area of the low-water channel, and an increase in the caving 

 and instability of the banks with greater flood elevations than before, 

 as will presently appear. 



The logical inference from these data would seem to point con- 

 clusively to the necessity for a modification of the levee system and 

 a resort to one which will relieve the floods, while at the same time 

 it reduces their height and also maintains a more constant low- 

 water stage, with greater depths for navigation. Under such a sys- 

 tem the Government would be fully justified in making appropria- 

 tions for maintaining low levees, supplemented by outlets and 

 receiving basins for storage of the excess of flood waters. 



This involves the removal of all bars or obstacles which retard 

 discharge, beginning at the mouths and proceeding up stream ; the 

 readjustment of the alignment at the gorges and the construction of 

 reservoirs in the swamps, especially of the St. Francis basin. 



Before leaving the report of the Commission of 1883, it is desir- 

 able to state further that, under the views as above outlined, the 

 estimate for the 'Mevees on the Mississippi river at certain grades" 

 aggregated $11,443,770; but it recommended the ''closure of the 

 gaps in the existing levees along the Yazoo and Tensas fronts, begun 

 a year ago, as the most economical and shortest method of shutting 

 off the escape of water into those great reservoirs, and securing so 

 far the benefit of the entire discharge in the improvement of the 

 channel. Beyond that the Commission is not prepared at this time 

 to make any specific recommendation for construction of levees as 

 a means of channel improvement, and reserves the subject for 

 further consideration." 



