64 Kansas Academy of Science. 



meander its channel would be just as efPective in times of flood 

 with the flood currents working against the levees as though they 

 were working against a natural bank. The soft materials of the 

 freshly made levees would melt away under such influences with 

 surprising rapidity, and in order that such levees be maintained 

 practically it would become necessary to keep a strong force of men 

 at work along the entire distance leveed throughout each period of 

 high water. 



Somewhat similar to levee building is a process of raising the 

 grades of railroads recently indulged in to such an extent in many 

 places along river valleys. If a railroad grade is parallel with the 

 stream, raising the grade will be beneficial to the road. If, how- 

 ever, it is transverse to the direction of the water current, it serves 

 as a dam and only makes a bad matter worse. It is beyond my 

 ability to understand the actions of some railroad engineers in this 

 respect. Here and there we find railroad grades virtually forming 

 dams from bluff to bluff across streams with only a few small open- 

 ings through which the water can flow. A notable recent example 

 of this is along the Santa F6 railway across the Wakarusa valley 

 south of Lawrence. Since the flood of 1903 this grade was raised 

 from two to five feet. It is almost directly across the river valley. 

 In 1908, I am reliably informed by parties who actually made the 

 measurements, this performed the function of a dam to such 

 an extent that the water was from eighteen to twenty inches higher 

 on the up-stream side than on the lower side. A large amount of 

 money was spent in this movement, only to find that it impeded the 

 flow of the water to such an extent that the last condition, if possi- 

 ble, is worse than the first What would have happened had the 

 same grade been built five, ten, twenty or a hundred feet higher, 

 provided it was strong enough to withhold the force of the water 

 pressure ? It seems plain thkt it simply would have created a great 

 reservoir on the up-stream side and that ultimately the water-level 

 would have reached the top of the grade just the same as it did be- 

 fore the last improvements. The great mistake was made by not 

 providing suitable outlets for the water to get away. 



The engineers evidently thought they did, forgetting apparently 

 that the entire valley in 1903 was necessary for the current. It 

 seems almost madness to assume that in times of a like flood a run- 

 way one- tenth or one- twentieth the width of the valley was suflBcient 

 to let the water pass. 



In a similar manner other river valleys in many places have these 

 great railroad grades crossing them, serving as immense dikes to 



