/' TACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 27 



DISASTROUS RIVER FLOODS EFFECTS OF FOREST DESTRUC- 

 TIONREMARKABLE RISE AND FALL OF THE OHIO. 



The western rivers are again overflowing their banks, and causing desola- 

 tion, loss of life and great destruction of property. 



So long back as we have any history of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, 

 there have been floods and they will always occur when melting snows and 

 downpours of rain unite their volumes and seek an exit to the lowest levels, the 

 ocean. 



The first recorded flood in the Ohio river was in February, 1832. An ex- 

 tremely heavy snowfall had occurred in the Cumberland and Allegheny moun- 

 tains and covered the western part of New York, Pennsylvania, all of Ohio and 

 throughout the Ohio valley. Suddenly the temperature rose and rains oc- 

 curred simultaneously over a very large area of country drained by this river. 

 As a result, the Ohio rose to the then unprecedented height of 64 feet 3 inches. 

 The next record of extremely high water was in December, 1847, when a sim- 

 ilar combination of snowfall and continuous rains with high winter tempera- 

 t ire brought the Ohio up to 63 feet 7 inches. 



Official records of high and low waters were not begun until 1860, but the 

 author has had abundant opportunities during early life as a steamboat official 

 to gather from the earliest steamboat captains and pilots many unrecorded facts. 



The depth of the Ohio at Cincinnati, was, in 



Feet. Inches. 



February, 1858 55 5 



January, 1862 57 4 



March, 1865 56 3 



March, 1867 55 8 



January, 1870 55 3 



August, 1875 55 6 



February, 1882 58 7 



February. 1883 66 4 



^February 14. 1884 71 3 /4 



April, 1886 55 9 



February, 1887 56 3 



March, 1890 59 2 



February. 1891 57 4 



February, 1893 54 ll 



February. 1897 61 2 



*The highest water ever known. 



