Maech 4, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



369 



serving of national aid as tlie arid lands of 

 the plains. He advocated a more thorough 

 system of drainage by the removal of the 

 obstacles and bars in the section below Red 

 River. He discussed the statements made 

 as to the effect of crevasses, showing from 

 surveys that they are of great benefit in 

 reducing the flood stages and improving 

 navigation, as well as in adding extensive 

 tracts to the arable lands of the state and 

 nation. By removing a large percentage 

 of silt from the river, they also retard 

 the gulfward movement of the bars and 

 flatter slopes which contribute to flood 

 heights. By the natural process of hy- 

 draulic grading not less than 150 square 

 miles have been deposited above the gulf 

 level within thirty years. To have filled 

 this up by dredges at ten cents per yard 

 would have cost $1,500 per acre, which 

 would have been prohibitory. He also 

 dwelt on the need of removing bars from 

 the front of all passes, by a curved form of 

 jetty, simulating and applying the action 

 of all streams in creating the deep-water 

 pools found in their, concave bends. Thus 

 vessels could freely navigate all the passes, 

 while at the same time the floods would 

 be lowered and the sediment be deposited 

 on the opposite or convex bank. 



Colonel J. A. Ockerson, of St. Louis, 

 with the aid of stereoptieon illustrations 

 described the work of the Mississippi River 

 Commission, of which he is a member. He 

 discussed some of the physical character- 

 istics of the river and the subjects of flood 

 control and channel improvement, and 

 showed scenes along the river from its 

 source to its mouth, including the levees 

 and levee building, crevasses, and the hy- 

 draulic dredges used in the channels and 

 the methods of removing obstructions to 

 navigation. 



The last paper of the evening was on 

 'The Lower Mississippi River,' by Mr. 

 James A. Seddon, of St. Louis, Mo. He 



stated that the word 'river' is a geograph- 

 ical and not a physical term. That, unlike 

 the tidal rivers, the Mississippi is a power 

 that has made its valley and is master of it. 

 The great flood has more than ten times 

 the power of Niagara in its flow to the gulf. 

 He discussed in considerable detail the 

 physical conformation of the valley, showed 

 that the river has an excess of power to 

 carry its sediment, and stated that the only 

 place where the Mississippi River has 

 formed a bar by dropping this sediment is 

 where it meets the waters of the gulf. At 

 the mouth the flow can no longer carry its 

 sediment, as it is too weak. In the valley 

 the flow is too strong and it chokes itself 

 up and spreads out in shallows. He dis- 

 cussed the subject of dykes and bank pro- 

 tection and gave many interesting facts 

 concerning levee history. The author is in 

 favor of a reservoir system of protection, 

 and stated that this would give the bottom 

 lands a certain flood protection, while 

 emptying the reservoirs at the time of 

 low water in the river would triple its 

 depth, and the cost of the work of reser- 

 voir construction would have been a little 

 more than half of the $80,000,000 which 

 has been spent on the lower Mississippi. 

 By this means the river would become a 

 deep waterway which would not stop at 

 the Ohio River, but continuing up the Illi- 

 nois River through the Chicago drainage 

 canal, would join the lake and gulf com- 

 merce. He is of the opinion that what is 

 most needed in this case is a statesman to 

 see 'that the river and harbor bill carries 

 a responsibility that will produce results 

 with its expenditure.' 



This series of papers gave as complete a 

 resume of the subject as the time allotted 

 would permit, and showed what a wide di- 

 versity of opinion there is among scientific 

 experts on this extremely important prob- 

 lem in civil engineering and hydraulics. 



The Thursday morning program was, as 



