Geography of the Land. 43 
been reduced to a minimum, through the conservative action of 
the Commission in codperating with.the States having jurisdiction 
over the alluvial bottoms, in reorganizing their levee systems and 
thus securing the greatest control over the volume of water 
brought down in the flood seasons, that is possible by the con- 
struction of well planned and substantially built levees. It 
having been demonstrated that the levees subserve a double pur- 
pose, that they are essential in the general plan to improve the 
navigation of the river adopted by the Commission, and are like- 
wise needed to render the bottom lands habitable, it is not sur- 
prising that we find the State authorities and the Commission 
jointly engaged in their construction. 
It has thus been brought about that the effort to improve the 
navigation of the river for the general welfare, has resulted in 
such great changes in the geography of the locality, that a large 
district has Been reclaimed for agricultural purposes. The allu- 
vial valley of the Mississippi river has an area of thirty thousand 
square miles, and is naturally divided into four great basins that 
have been designated the St. Francis, Yazoo, Tensas and Atcha- 
falaya. Two of these basins are now fairly protected from the 
overflows of the Mississippi, by the levees that have been con- 
structed, or repaired, incidental to the work of the Commission, 
viz: the Yazoo basin extending from below Memphis to the 
mouth of the Yazoo river; and the Tensas basin from the high 
land south of the Arkansas river to the mouth of the Red river ; 
and the Atchafalaya basin, from the Red river to the gulf, has 
been protected on the Mississippi fronts. These three basins 
have an aggregate area of nearly twenty thousand square miles 
that is now reasonably secure from inundation. Measures have 
also been instituted by the State authorities looking to the 
reclamation of the St. Francis basin ; and the work is half ac- 
complished on the White river section. 
Nearly the whole of this valley was under protection thirty 
_ years ago, but the disasters of the late civil war, and subsequent 
inability of the people to repair the damaged levees, resulted in 
the practical abandonment of many sections, and it was not until 
about ten or twelve years ago that the protective works again 
presented an appearance of continuity. The supposed security, 
however, was of short duration, as the great floods of 1882 over- 
topped the works in more than one hundred and forty places, 
causing such widespread destruction that cultivation of the soil 
