im.] HAUPT — THE iMISSISSIPPI RIVER PROBLEM. 83 



of the levees. But the popular demand for levees has reversed this 

 order." 



It v/ould seem, therefore, that in consequence of the instability 

 of the bed and banks with their superimposed levees and the increas- 

 ing heights of the floods, the question of the ultimate cost is inde- 

 terminate but great. 



In military practice it is found to be good tactics to disperse an 

 enemy and attack him in detail, but the levee system appears to 

 reverse this mode of procedure and concentrates the energy of the 

 flood for a thousand miles, so that if there be a v/eak point in the 

 ramparts it will assuredly discover and breach it. 



The third point of contention has been discussed pro and co/i, 

 but is of such importance that a few citations are deemed necessary 

 to state its status. For example, it is said : 



" The cross-section of the river will gradually rise, and has risen 

 where not leveed. .... It is not claimed by the advocates of the 

 levee and contraction system that there will be an appreciable or 



immediate lowering of the bed of the river It will take 



many years But that the raising of the bed to any measur- 

 able amount in centuries to come will take place is rot admitted." 

 The writer then cites the Po. 



In other words, the levees have no appreciable effect on the eleva- 

 tion or the depression of the low-water, or even on the high-water, 

 channel in any sensible period of time. If so, there is no justifi- 

 cation for their construction as aids to navigation, and hence no 

 warrant for the appropriation by the general Government. 



The Po, which is so frequently cited as an illustration that the 

 bed is not rising, appears to be much misunderstood. 



One of our most distinguished United States Engineer officers is 

 quoted as saying : " The river Po has long been leveed, and it is 

 often stated that its bed has risen largely in consequence of levees. 

 The following data will show how unfounded is the statement that 

 the bed has risen by amounts that are of much importance." He 

 then adduces the data in the form of gauge readings and adds : 

 " The above gauge readings, which have been kept only since 1S07, 

 show that there has been no important rise of the river bed (since 

 that could not rise without raising the low- water surface) in the past 

 sixty-eight years." 



This testimony, therefore, admits that the bed does rise but mini- 

 mizes its amount, and falls into the error of assuming that the eleva- 



