IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSOURI AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS. 219 



The third expedition due exchisively to Sebastian Cabot, mentions the en- 

 counter of icebergs in Lat. 56° to 58° North, in the month of July, 1498, then a 

 landing afterward on New Foundland. 



The fourth voyage, undertaken by Sebastian Cabot alone, mentions his reach- 

 ing the Latitude of 67° 30' N. on the date of June 11, 1517, probably in Baffins 



Bay ? . 



Richard Cortambert, 

 Librarian of the National Library, Paris. 



NoTK. — Capt. Berthoud informs us that he owns Sebastian Cabot's map 

 with the "Phrima Vista Land" marked upon it. — [Ed. Review. 



ENGINEERING AND MINING. 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSOURI AND MISSISSIPPI 



RIVERS. 



HON. R. T. VAN HORN, M. C. 



[Exit acts from Speech delivered in the House, June ij, 1882.') 



The problem of the improvement of the navigation of the great rivers of the 

 United States is one involving elements as various as thecharacter of the rivers them- 

 selves. What is suited to one is not adapted to another, and the obstacles in one 

 differ from those in another. For example, let us take the Mississippi and its two 

 great tributaries — the Missouri and the Ohio. What is adapted for the Missouri 

 is not applicable to the Upper Mississippi and the Ohio. And when I refer to 

 " Upper Mississippi " I mean above the mouth of the Ohio, and the "Lower 

 Mississippi" that portion below that point. And what is practicable for the Up- 

 per Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Ohio is not so for the Lower Mississippi. 

 In the former the difficulty is not enough water for continuous and permanent 

 navigation ; in the lower river there is too much water. 



The different methods demanded is from the differing characters of the rivers. 

 In the Ohio and Upper Mississippi the beds of the rivers are rocky and gravelly 

 the shoal places being unchangeable from that fact. The problem is to remove 

 these rocky and gravelly shoals and to concentrate the water of the river in de- 

 fined and permanent channels. The banks, too, are permanent, owing to the 

 tenacity of the soil, and but little subject to abrasion. This is demonstrated in 

 the navigation of those rivers by the fact that pilots run their boats by landmarks 

 from year to year; while in the Missouri they run by the surface indications and 

 bends of the river, landmarks being unknown. The Missouri, from the Yellow- 



