LEVEES. 97 



"Its principal interest to the engineer is due to the experience which has been 

 derived from the wholesale closure of unleveed tracts and the extraordinary elevation 

 of its high-water line consequent thereon. 



"There are two of the great basins into which the Mississippi valley is divided 

 which have only recently been protected to any extent by levees. These are the St. 

 Francis and the White River basins. The former was closed during the last three 

 years, or since the flood of 1893, to a distance, measured along the river, of about 120 

 miles. There still remains a gap of about 100 miles. The White River basin has 

 been undergoing a gradual process of closure for several years. In 1893 there was a 

 gap of about 15 miles, extending between points 330 and 360 miles, respectively, by 

 river, below Cairo. In 1896 this gap was closed and the line of levee was made con- 

 tinuous from the hills at Helena to a point 8 miles above the mouth of White River. 



"It is to the building of these lines and to the maintenance of the lines previously 

 existing until a late period of the flood that the unparalleled stages attained by the 

 water have been due." 



Efficiency. The engineer Belgrand has voiced his experience in regard to levees 

 as follows: " In my opinion it is plain that even in a country where levees have existed 

 for twenty centuries, where property has been exposed to all the consequences I 

 refer to the valley of the Po it has not been clearly demonstrated that the advantages 

 are greater than the inconveniences." 



Whether we must eventually come to this conclusion as to the Mississippi levees 

 time alone can decide. Without doubt there are serious objections to them, and it is 

 probable these objections will not decrease in number or strength after the virtual 

 completion of the systems. To quote from one of the authors just mentioned: "The 

 best study they (levee engineers) can give to the subject and some of them have given 

 a great deal leads them to think that levees are the most efficient, cheapest, and most 

 certain means of securing the lowlands from inundation, while preserving existing 

 conditions and improving rather than deteriorating the channel. Very considerable 

 progress has been made toward the completion of a levee system, and it may be said 

 that the end is plainly in sight. The engineers, then, and others charged with the 

 responsibility of protecting the lowlands deprecate the dissipation of the none-too- 

 plentiful funds in experiments which will certainly be costly, and which they believe 

 will be unsatisfactory or 'actively harmful, when a plain road to safety lies before them. 

 Half of this road has been traveled. It is not short at best; but it may be made 

 indefinitely longer if we stray into every by-path that presents itself. 



"The objections which have usually been urged against levees are: first, that they 

 are too precarious that they cannot be made strong enough to be secure against 

 breaking; second, that they cost too much; and third, that they raise the bed of the 

 river by confining within the channel the silt which otherwise would be carried over 

 the banks and be deposited on the adjacent bottom lands 



"The first objection will not be entertained by any engineer when he hears that 



