49 National Geographic M agazine. 
graphic development that will mark an epoch in the history of the 
river. 
Ten years ago the importance of the improvement of this 
water-way was so forcibly impressed upon Congress, that an act 
was passed organizing a “ Mississippi River Commission,” to 
make an exhaustive study of the whole subject and submit plans 
for the improvement of the river and to prevent the destructive 
floods that are of almost annual occurrence. Or in the language 
of the act: ‘It shall be the duty of said Commission to take 
into consideration and mature such plan or plans, and estimates, 
as will correct, permanently locate, and deepen the channel and 
protect the banks of the Mississippi river; improve and give 
safety and ease to the navigation thereof ; prevent destructive 
floods ; promote and facilitate commerce, trade, and the postal 
service.” 
Large sums of money had already been expended by the gen- 
eral government in local improvements, but no consistent plan 
had been developed that would be an acceptable guide in con- 
ducting operations along the whole river, when this act went into 
effect. It is not necessary to refer here to the various systems 
that were presented to the Commission for consideration ; nor to 
enter upon the details of the plan finally adopted ; our record 
being more the eftects and primary causes, than the intermediary 
processes through which the results have been produced. The 
general plan followed by the Commission has been the construc- 
tion of works in the bed of the river, to form new banks where 
a contraction of the river bed has been deemed necessary ; and 
the erection of levees, with grading, revetment, and other pro- 
tection of the banks, in localities where the natural banks seem 
particularly lable to give way under the pressure of a great 
flood. The object of such works being to control the river by 
confining the low water channels in fixed lines, causing the recur- 
rence of the scour in low water stages in the same channel in suc- 
cessive low waters ; and preventing the diversion of the stream 
into new channels during high water stages by overflow of the 
banks. A diversion of the stream would leave the works in the 
bed of the river below of no greater value than as monuments to- 
the energy and skill displayed in the details of their construction, 
and preclude the ultimate benefit that may be derived from these 
works in permanently lowering the bed of the river. The proba- 
bility of such diversion of the water, however, seems to have 
