MISSISSIPPI RIVER IMPROVEMENT. 



601 



in 1824. In that year the Ohio received $75,- 

 000, and $50,000 more was bestowed on that 

 tributary in 1827, 1829, and 1830. In 1829 a 

 survey of the mouth of the Mississippi was 

 ordered. The Treasury has bled freely in fa- 

 vor of insignificant streams belonging to some 

 well-represented locality ; but the Mississippi, 

 which belongs to no State and no section,sweep- 

 ing through the length and breadth of the land 

 from its northern to its southern limit, has 

 found no advocate zealous enough to procure a 

 due proportion of governmental aid. It has not 

 received one sixth of the general appropriation. 

 Broken banks and shifting shoals have been 

 suffered to impede its navigation. Napoleon, 

 when he sold its delta, announced to the French 

 nation that he had thus given to England a 

 maritime rival who would yet make her trem- 

 ble for her supremacy on the seas. A wise 

 statesmanship would have made it a paramount 

 object to keep the great river free from all im- 

 pediments ; even a certain justice would sug- 

 gest that the Government, which levies a reve- 

 nue of $1,200,000 by licenses of pilots, steam- 

 boats, and other riparian taxes, should employ 

 a part of these charges on the commerce of the 

 river in its improvement. The estimate of 

 the commission for requisite works was $4,123,- 

 000. Much opposition was made to the bill, 

 but finally $1,000,000 was secured by the act 

 approved March 3, 1881. 



The law under which the commission was 

 organized requires it to complete the surveys 

 now in progress between the head-waters of 

 the river and the head of the passes near its 

 mouth, and to make such additional surveys 

 and investigations, topographical, hydrograph- 

 ical, and hydrometrical, of the river and its trib- 

 utaries, as it may deem necessary. 



The first report of the commission (see " An- 

 nual Cyclopaedia," 1880) describes the work 

 done to January 8, 1881. Between that period 

 and October 10, 1881 



. . . The triangulation of the river has been com- 

 pleted from Arkansas City ? Arkansas, to Greenville, 

 Mississippi, thirty-eight miles distant, where it joins 

 the Coast Survey triangulation, now complete from 

 that point to the Gulf of Mexico. It has peen com- 

 pleted between Thebes, Missouri, and Cairo, a dis- 

 tance of twenty-two miles, and between Grafton, Illi- 

 nois, and Keokuk, Iowa, a distance of one hundred 

 and sixty-six miles ; this latter chain depending on 

 bases measured with a secondary base apparatus at 

 Grafton, Louisiana, and Keokuk. Azimuth deter- 

 minations were also made at these last points. The 

 triangulation is accordingly now completed from Keo- 

 kuk. Iowa, to the Gulf of Mexico. 



The precise levels have closed a gap of six miles 

 above Greenville, Mississippi. They have been com- 

 pleted from Neeley's Landing, Missouri, to Cairo, a 

 distance of one hundred and fifty miles. 



The Coast and Geodetic Survey has made its line 

 of precise levels continuous from Greenville to New 

 Orleans, so that the precise levels are now complete 

 between Keokuk, Iowa, and New Orleans. 



A tide-gauffe has been established in the Gulf of 

 Mexico at Biloxi, and the Superintendent of the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey has kindly offered to con- 

 nect his line of precise levels along the Mississippi 

 River with this tide-gauge, so that within a year or 

 two it is hoped to refer with precision all the levels 



along the Mississippi River to the mean level of the 

 Gulf of Mexico as an origin. 



The preliminary topography and the soundings 

 have been carried from Walnut Bend, Arkansas, to 

 Sunflower Landing, Mississippi, a distance of seventy 

 miles, and a survey of Vicksburg Harbor has been 

 completed. 



The plotting of the topographv and hydrography 

 has been continued, twenty-six additional sheets hav- 

 ing been plotted to a scale of ? o,nj- 



The preparation of a preliminary chart of the river 

 on a scale of J^'SB, or one inch to a mile, has been 

 begun, and four sheets, reaching from Cairo to Cotton- 

 wood Point, are completed. 



The observation parties which were placed on the 

 upper Mississippi last fall at Ptescott, Winona, Clay- 

 ton, Hannibal, Grafton, and St. Louis, have been 

 maintained during the year, and were withdrawn 

 about October 25th. Aside from information gained as 

 to changes in the bed of the river, and as to sediment, 

 these observations will give at short intervals during 

 the year the discharge at the respective stations, and 

 also the annual discharge. 



A party which, at the date of the last report, was 

 engaged in determining the heights of high-water 

 marks for the flood of 1880, has completed that work 

 from Cairo to Fort Saint Philip, below New Orleans, 

 and has determined the slopes of the river at low 

 water from Cairo to Commerce, Mississippi, a distance 

 of three hundred miles. 



In order to obtain more definite information as to 

 the height of the alluvial bottom-lands of the Missis- 

 sippi and their reservoir capacity, a series of trans- 

 verse level lines, running from ground above overflow 

 on the east side of the river to the similar ground on 

 the west side, has been undertaken. High water on 

 the bottom-lands interfered seriously with the prog- 

 ress of this and of other work on the lower river dur- 

 ing last spring. . . . With the remainder of the 

 present appropriation, it is hoped, during the com- 

 ing year, to complete the final topography and hy- 

 drography from St. Louis Landing to Vicksburg, to 

 complete the lines (nine in all) ot levels across the 

 alluvial bottom of the Mississippi River, and to keep 

 gauging parties at Paducah and Columbus, Kentucky : 

 Helena, Arkansas ; Lake Providence, Louisiana ; and 

 the mouth of the Red River, until next fall. 



After the adjournment of the last Congress, 

 the commission met to determine the best mode 

 of expenditure for the $1,000,000 appropria- 

 tion. Out of the six reaches of difficult navi- 

 gation, they selected two, Plum Point and Lake 

 Providence reaches. 



Plum Point reach includes thirty-eight miles 

 of shifting shoals between wide banks, with a 

 minimum depth of four and a half feet. It lies 

 between Cairo and Memphis, and extends from 

 Island No. 26 to Randolph, or Second Chicka- 

 saw Bluffs. The banks vary from 2,000 to 

 10,000 feet in width. Lake Providence reach 

 extends from Skipwith's Landing, Louisiana, to 

 the foot of Island No. 95, a distance of twenty- 

 five miles. These are the lowest of the shoals 

 which seriously interfere with commerce. The 

 cotton-boats which ply in the bends between 

 White River and New Orleans could during 

 low water extend their trade two hundred miles 

 were the bars near Lake Providence removed. 

 The plans of the commission were duly sanc- 

 tioned, but the preparation of the " plant " 

 delayed the work. They had in possession 

 only the moderate outfit necessary for survey- 

 ing, and the equipment had to be made, not 

 enlarged. Owing to the overcrowded condition 



