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The National Geographic Magazine 



uity, and to show how even in biblical 

 times the valleys of the Euphrates and of 

 the Nile and the Jordan were watered 

 artificially, even before the Hindoos and 

 Mexicans developed their irrigation sys- 

 tems ; but we may point to almost equal 

 antiquity for drainage. Biblical refer- 

 ences to this may be lacking only because 

 the people of biblical times lived in arid 

 regions, but in Greece, at an early period, 

 record is left of the reclamation of 

 swamp lands by drainage. The earliest 

 drainage project of any magnitude is 

 that for the reclamation of Lake Copias, 

 a great marshy tract in the neighbor- 

 hood of Thebes, Greece, 60,000 acres 

 in extent. In modern times this proj- 

 ect has been elaborated, and twenty 

 miles of main canal, a wide dike, and 

 2,000 feet of tunnel have been con- 

 structed. This work is of special inter- 

 est to us because at the outfall of the 

 drainage channel is a drop of 170 feet 

 which will yield about 1,000 horse-power, 

 and, still more interesting, this water will 

 then be available for irrigation of the arid 

 land near the city of Anthedon. 



THE drainage; op the valley of MEXICO 



On our own continent the project for 

 the drainage of the valley of Mexico 

 dates back to the fourteenth century, 

 when the Aztec kings built their city on 

 an island among the lakes and protected 

 it by dikes of great magnitude. They 

 divided the area which they drained into 

 five districts, in such manner that the 

 swamps have been segregated about five 

 lakes. It was they who started the cele- 

 brated Nochistongo cut for the discharge 

 of the river Catutlitan. In the seven- 

 teenth century this project was replaced 

 by one for tunneling, when a force of 

 15,000 Indians completed a tunnel ten 

 miles in length in the almost incredible 

 time of eleven months. Owing to faulty 

 construction, this tunnel caved, and it was 

 over one hundred years afterward before 

 the present drainage projects, which in- 

 clude the whole valley of Mexico, were 

 undertaken. These drainage works had 

 cost the Mexican treasury $3,000,000 bv 



the middle of the seventeenth century ; 

 over $8,000,000 by 1830; and now, as 

 they are nearly completed, a total of 

 $20,000,000 has been expended on them. 

 The results have, however, been fully 

 commensurate to the outlay. A vast area 

 has been drained, freed from malarial 

 diseases, and made not only habitable, but 

 productive in the highest degree. The 

 main canal controls the entire drainage 

 system of the valley; is thirty miles in 

 length, with an extreme depth of 60 feet 

 and a bottom width of 17 feet. These 

 works, which include a great tunnel 12 

 feet in diameter, rank with the greatest 

 achievements of modern times. 



r.KGINNING IN THIS COUNTRY 



In our own country many drainage 

 works of minor importance have been 

 undertaken by individuals, corporations, 

 districts and states. In Louisiana much 

 important work has been done in the 

 neighborhood of New Orleans; in Flor- 

 ida near the Everglades ; in Minnesota 

 and North Dakota on the upper Red 

 River valley : in Indiana, in the Kankakee 

 marshes, and in California in the lower 

 Sacramento Valley. The existing works 

 in our own country, however, bear about 

 the same relation to those still untouched 

 as did the earlier irrigation works of the 

 West to the vast undertakings now under 

 construction by the Reclamation Service. 

 All projects which were most evident and 

 which on examination presented the best 

 prospects of financial success have been 

 constructed. The people of Illinois, of 

 lower Minnesota and other portions of 

 this vast country have built ditches and 

 drained the lands in which they now live ; 

 but the more extensive and more expen- 

 sive drainage projects await that touch of 

 the wizard's wand which, held by the 

 federal government, alone may derive 

 sufficient benefit in the creation of new 

 homes and new productive areas to war- 

 rant the vast expenditure and the tardy 

 return which their reclamation promises. 



As with irrigation, this problem was 

 first turned over for solution to the states, 

 to which the government patented over 



