CHAPTER V. 

 LEVEES. 



History. Levees are embankments of earth thrown up to prevent overflow from 

 streams, or to stop the sea from inundating adjacent lands. The Egyptians and 

 Babylonians were the first of whom history speaks as having embanked their lands, 

 and they were followed by the Phoenicians, the Romans, and East Indian nations. 

 One of the earliest examples of levee building was around the city of Babylon. The 

 Euphrates was embanked on each side, the embankments leading to the bridge across 

 the stream. The skill displayed by the ancient Romans and others, and the extent 

 to which they went in embanking and reclaiming marsh lands are shown in the levees 

 along the Tiber near Rome, the Po near its mouth, and in the Fen-lands in England 

 and in Holland and other countries, but the attention of scientific men was not brought 

 seriously to the problem until Italy began systems of levees along its rivers during 

 the thirteenth century. The Arno, Tiber, and Po were partially embanked, followed 

 in the seventeenth century and later by the Chiana, Adige, Reno, and many of their 

 tributaries. The discussion brought about by the prosecution of this work resulted 

 in a general levee system, and enlisted some of the greatest philosophers of the time 

 among whom were Galileo, Poleni, Torricelli, and Zendrini, and the result is that 

 to-day these rivers arc confined between embankments which, although artificial, are 

 centuries old, and which have served as examples to Holland, Spain, France, Germany, 

 Ireland, England, and the United States, all of whom have profited by the systematic 

 works along the Po. The vast quantities of alluvial matter brought down by the 

 Rhine, the Maas, and the Scheldt formed salt marshes which were later reclaimed by 

 means of levees, known far and wide as the "Holland Dikes," and out of this marine 

 swamp arose the rich kingdom of Holland. There are levees also along the Rhine, 

 the Oder, the Elbe, the Vaert, and other rivers of Germany and Holland; along the 

 Thames, Mersey, and others in England, the Loire in France, and the Vistula and Elbe 

 in Prussia. 



In the United States, while there are numerous levees in various parts of the 

 country, and some of them of importance locally, there is but one extensive example 

 of levee work which can claim attention, that of the Mississippi and its tributaries 

 below Cairo. Prior to 1860 this important work was carried on in the States of 

 Arkansas and Louisiana by the State governments, while in Missouri, Tennessee, and 

 Mississippi each county bordering on the river had charge of its own levees. The 

 results were very unsatisfactory under county governments, and, even where directed 



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