106 THE /UPROVKMKXr OF KIVF.RS. 



t 



outlets. The reservoir system has now l*-en dove-loped to groat ]>erfoction and effects 

 an ini]X)rtant improvement l>oth in the Volga and the Msta, rendering them navigable 

 for nearly three months longer than they would be without this aid. 



"These reservoirs store about 35,000,000,000 cubic feet of water in all, of which 

 20,000,000,000 can be used in the Volga and 20,000,000,000 can be turned in the other 

 direction, there being apparently a storage of about five or six billions that can be used 

 in either direction. The largest and most important of these reservoirs, and one of 

 the largest in the world in point of capacity, although insignificant in depth and con- 

 taining-dam, is the \\-rkhnevoljsky reservoir. So slight is the fall of the stream in this 

 region that, although the dam produces a maximum elevation of water-surface at its 

 site of only about 17.5 feet, the water backs up a distance of about 60 miles and includes 

 several lakes. The low-water season capacity of this reservoir is about 14,000,000,000 

 cubic feet, and the average season storage is much greater. Its effect upon the low- 

 water flow of the river below the dam is to raise its normal surface 2.8 feet at Rjef, 

 96 miles below; 1.4 feet at Tver, the mouth of the Tvertsa, 212 rr'Jes below; and 0.14 

 feet at 410 miles below. At the mouth of the Tvertsa the storage of the Zavodsky 

 reservoir comes in and helps out the navigation below. The total navigable distance 

 on the Volga over which the beneficial influence of these reservoirs is felt is upward 

 of 450 miles. 



"On the Msta slope there are no fewer than ten important reservoirs, all of them 

 being on the sites of natural lakes, the total storage aggregating about 14,000,000,000 

 cubic feet. As already stated, about 6,000,000,000 cubic feet of storage which really 

 lies on the Volga slope, including the Zavoclsky reservoir, formerly was and still can 

 be turned into the Baltic drainage. This entire system of summit reservoirs that can 

 be used to feed the Msta is called the Vychnevolotsky system. It affords material 

 improvement to the navigable condition of Msta and Volkhoff rivers during the period 

 of low water. 



"The system of reservoirs just described is certainly a great success, and upon 

 it much of the prosperity of the surrounding country depends. It is probably t In- 

 most complete example in the world of the joint results of flood prevention and the 

 improvement of navigation produced by artificial reservoirs. It has an importance, 

 however, which it could not have in this country, even with equal physical advantages, 

 for railroads here do a far greater proportion of the transportation business than in 

 Russia. But the example shows how far favorable natural conditions can be made 

 to improve the low-water conditions of streams. 



"The largest artificial-reservoir system ever yet constructed is that at the head 

 waters of the Mississippi River. The natural conditions prevailing in that region are 

 very similar to those in Russia just described. The country about the sources of the 

 Mississippi, where the reservoirs are constructed, is about 1200 feet above sea-level. 

 It is dotted with an immense number of lakes, the total number having been estimated 

 as high as a thousand. Some of the larger of these lakes afford exceptionally favurabl" 



