44 National Geographic Magazine. 
was rendered impossible over large districts. The floods of suc- 
ceeding years but added to the misfortunes of the valley, and 
land values became so depreciated that sales were impracticable, 
taxes could not be collected, and there was a general feeling that 
square miles of fertile land must be given over to the destructive 
agencies of the great river that had made it. 
It was while suffering under this distressing situation that the 
work of the Mississippi River Commission was brought forward 
as a possible means of salvation. With a recuperative power 
that seems almost marvelous, the people have contributed of their 
labor and their means, until now this great area of nearly twenty 
thousand square miles has been once more reclaimed, and seems 
to have entered upon an era of prosperity that will eclipse the 
prophecies of even the most sanguine. It is believed that the 
levees that have now been constructed will prove reasonably se- 
cure. They have been built for a double purpose ; and the pro- 
portion of the expense incurred by the general government, about 
one-third, under the direction of the Commission, has insured a 
supervision and inspection by competent engineers such as was 
not exercised in the earlier history of such works on the river. 
We cannot foretell the developments that will follow the im- 
provement of this water way and the reclamation of the alluvial 
bottoms on an enduring basis. That the works erected by the 
Commission wiil maintain an increased depth of water at the 
low stages of the river, seems to be demonstrated, as during the 
low water of November last a depth of nine feet was found on 
the Lake Providence and Plum Point bars, an increase of thirty- 
three and forty-four per cent. respectively. When the depths on 
the other bars have been increased in like proportion the free nav- 
igation of the river will be assured, and we may point to the re- 
sult as one of the greatest engineering achievements of modern 
times. 
The increased value of the land adjacent to the river redeemed 
from waste, more than doubled on the average, and in many _ 
instances quadrupled; the replenishing of the state and county 
treasuries by the collection of taxes on land that was before un- 
remunerative ; and the building of railroads through sections — 
where it had been impracticable to maintain them before in con- 
sequence of their liability to destruction by the periodic floods ; 
are marked evidences of the material prosperity that has already 
followed the great work. During the last four years, forty thou- 
