40 



ditches and gullies, decreases surface drainage during precipitation. The 

 uniform covering of snow in winter prevents the soil from freezing and 

 when the snow melts this body of Avater is retained. The great mass of 

 water formerly held by the forest and gradually given out to the .streams 

 as they carried off the more immediate supply now flows from unprotec-ted 

 tields like rain from gi-avel streets, washing away the best of the upland, 

 inundating the lowlands, and making agriculture along the banks of many 

 streams most uncertain. 



Then, too, the navigability of our streams has been seriously affected. 

 The headwaters no longer contain sufficient water to float even the old- 

 time flatboat, and farther down the stream the channel is simply a laby- 

 rinth of bars and shoals, products of denuded fields above, making naviga- 

 tion impracticable. The failure of our streams to compete as formerly in 

 the commerce of our State increases the cost of living and destroys what 

 otherwise might be a gi'eat industry. 



The Wabash River, extending northward from the Ohio, receives tribu- 

 taries from almost every section and drains four-fifths of our common- 

 wealth. The central and southern parts are reached by the north and east 

 branches of the White River and the north and north central parts by the 

 Wabash and Tippecanoe. The records of the early navigation of these 

 streams is full of interest. The head of navigation for boats of small 

 draught was Monticello on the Tippecanoe, Logansport on the Wabash, 

 Indianapolis on the White River, and on the east fork of the White and 

 Muscatatuck rivers, as far east as Scott County. On the southeast the 

 White River was navigable to Bi-ookville. 



Some of these early boats had really a large carrying capacity. One 

 built at Terre Haute for the navigation of the Wal>ash was one hun- 

 dred and thirty feet long and twenty-nine feet wide, with a carrying 

 capacity of three hundred and fifty tons. 



From the heads of navigation and below, and from the smaller tribu- 

 taries of all of Indiana's streams from many miles in the interior, fiat 

 boats cai'ried lumber, pork, poultry, corn, wheat, oats, fruits and hoop- 

 poles down the Mississippi to New Orleans and the returning river steam- 

 ers distributed gi-eat quantities of freight up many of these streams into 

 the State. To some extent the smaller tributaries of the Ohio that reached 

 into the State through one or two counties were factors in our transporta- 

 tion system. But all of this has passed away and from only a few places 

 on the lower Wabash do we receive any practical advantage from our 



