NATURAL WATERWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES HARTS. 561 



these streams for further expenditures has been recently reported 

 upon adversely. The cost of the five completed locks and dams has 

 been $1,558,000. The commerce consists principally of logs and rail- 

 road ties. It was originally hoped to reach the undeveloped coal 

 fields at the headwaters of the forks by the river navigation, but the 

 construction of railroads has made the extension of the slack water 

 unnecessary and unprofitable. Commerce in recent years has been as 

 follows : 



Tons. 



1890 268, 582 



1895 545, 910 



1900 300, 000 



Tons. 



1905 152, 077 



1910 147, 725 



1912 188, 743 



A conspicuous instance of the extension up-stream of the slack- 

 water system of one of these streams, long after the commerce has 

 declined to an unimportant figure, is the Kentucky River. The lower 

 five locks of this system M^ere constructed by the State of Kentucky 

 in the years immediately following 1835, but they had grown useless 

 and dilapidated, due to neglect, long before the year 1879, when they 

 were turned over to the United States for restoration. These locks 

 were restored at considerable expense, and a new project adopted 

 soon after, involving the construction of 14 new locks and dams, to 

 extend the 6-foot navigation up to Beattyville, at the headwaters, 

 where it was hoped the coal veins would supply a volume of traffic 

 that would justify the high cost of the work. If any hope of such a 

 traffic was ever warranted, the railroads have since made it improb- 

 able of fulfillment. The estimated cost of the proposed work was 

 $4,865,550. Of this amount $3,870,000 has now been spent, and all the 

 system completed except the two uppermost locks and dams. The 

 principal present commerce of the river is logs and railroad ties, 

 which are best floated down stream, at high water, in rafts. In 1912 

 the commerce amounted to 186,300 tons. Previous years show a fall- 

 ing off of business in spite of the greatly increased length of channel 

 available. The commerce was as follows: 



Tons. 



1890 810, 354 



1895 296, 318 



1900 162, 891 



Tons. 



1905 124, 871 



1910 263, 785 



1912 186, 300 



We see here an expensive system, costly to build and costly to main- 

 tain, without enough commerce to warrant the outlay. This result 

 was predicted 20 years ago by the local engineers, but without 

 effect. The Beattyville coal can never compete with Pittsburgh coal, 

 even along the lower Kentucky River. 



Several other small streams which empty into the Ohio have canal- 

 ized sections. The Wabash River, flowing south from Indiana, has 

 one lock and dam, having a 5-foot depth over the sills and about a 



