368 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 479, 



River' and ending with a paper by Mr. 

 James A. Seddon, of St. Louis, on 'The 

 Lower Mississippi River.' 



Professor Hall's paper was illustrated by 

 a number of lantern slides showing the 

 head-waters of the Mississippi, the geolog- 

 ical formations of the valley and a study 

 of the currents and the flow of the waters 

 of the river. 



A paper by Judge R. S. Taylor, of Ft. 

 Wayne, Ind., a member of the Mississippi 

 River Commission, was then read on 'Lev- 

 ees, Outlets and Reservoirs.' He stated 

 that the alluvial valley of the river below 

 Cairo contains 29,790 square miles of lands 

 subject to overflow in its natural state ; that 

 it is all capable of protection and reclama- 

 tion by levees, which has been going on for 

 nearly 200 years, except a small area at the 

 foot of each drainage basin, which has to 

 be left open for the escape of surface drain- 

 age. The existing lines of levees are about 

 1,350 miles long and about 80 miles remain 

 to be constructed to complete in length the 

 main river system. In few places, how- 

 ever, are the embankments as high and as 

 strong as they should be for the greatest 

 safety. ' The potential high water of floods 

 to come' has been the subject of much study 

 and discussion. The nearest approach to 

 a standard has been that the levee should 

 be three feet above the highest previous 

 flood line in that locality. 



The flood of 1897 made 38 crevasses 

 having an aggregate width of about 8 

 miles; the flood of 1903 made 9 crevasses, 

 having an aggregate width of about 3 miles. 

 The levees in place in 1903, if no crevasses 

 had breached them, would have protected 

 about 26,000 square miles from overflow. 

 Of that area a total of about 3,000 square 

 miles was overflowed in consequence of the 

 crevasses which took place, which is less 

 than one eighth of the entire area which 

 the existing levees could and would have 

 protected if they had all been high enough 



and had held their places. In the phrase 

 of the target-shooters, they accomplished 

 87^ per cent, of success out of a possible 

 100. The levee system is at this moment 

 in the very crisis of its history. It has 

 demonstrated the possibility of its useful- 

 ness. It wants just the last grand effort 

 to carry it to completion. We ought not 

 to think of the diversion of any part of our 

 resources to any other work while that re- 

 mains unfinished. During the flood of 

 1903 the existing levees protected from 

 overflow seven eighths of all the lands 

 capable of protection. If great floods 

 should come once in five years, and we 

 should never do any better than we did 

 last spring, this would mean that there 

 would be an average annual inundation of 

 2} acres out of every 100 acres. This 

 would seem to show that the present sys- 

 tem of levees is successful. The author 

 does not believe in the successful protection 

 by outlets and reservoirs, and paid their 

 advocates the compliment of a polite refu- 

 tation of their arguments. The paper will 

 be published by the Werner Co., Akron, 

 Ohio. 



He was followed by Professor Lewis M. 

 Haupt, of Philadelphia, Pa., who referred 

 to the law of 1879 and to reports of the 

 ' Board of Engineers. ' He qiioted the reso- 

 lution of congress of 1891 that 'no portion 

 of the appropriation then made should be 

 expended to repair or build levees for the 

 purpose of reclaiming land, but only when 

 it may afford ease and safety to the naviga- 

 tion and commerce of the river and deepen 

 the channel. He stated that it was shown, 

 by a comparison of surveys made at an 

 interval of twelve years, that the bed had 

 risen about four feet, and that the banks 

 above low water had caved in to a large ex- 

 tent. He urged that the law be amended 

 so as to provide for specific appropriations 

 for levees to protect the waste and swamp 

 lands, which, he claimed, were quite as de- 



