24 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF 



The foregoing table, with interpolations for the fractions of feet, suppHes a 

 convenient means of determining the daily discharge of the Ohio at Wheeling 

 for any given depth upon the bar at that place. 



But to make practical applications of the information which it contains, we 

 need an authentic account of the daily height of water upon the bar, to which 

 the table refers, for a series of years. And this has, fortunately, been procured. 



By reference to the books of the wharf master of the city, the files of the 

 "Times" newspaper and the minutes of the Reporter, the writer has succeeded 

 in obtaining an almost unbroken record of the daily depth upon the Wheeling 

 bar, from the year 1838 down to 1848, including both. 



The heights of the water were measured, up to 16 feet, on a monument estab- 

 lished by the city authorities, under the inspection and by the levels of Captain 

 (now Major) Sanders, of the U. S. Corps of Engineers. The height of the flood 

 of 1832, the highest ever known, has been repeatedly and carefully levelled, as 

 have also the marks of numerous other intermediate freshets. These heights 

 have been compared with the record, and the agreement has been such as to 

 impart entire confidence in the care with which the observations have been 

 noted. 



These records will be found in the succeeding pages, and will furnish, it is 

 hoped, the basis of conclusions interesting to science as well as to the com- 

 merce of the country. 



In the following tables, the height of the water on the Wheeling bar is shown 

 for each day of the year to which the respective tables apply. At the foot of 

 the column which exhibits the record of the daily height for each month, is 

 shown the total discharge in cubic feet for the whole of that month. The 

 figures below the monthly discharge, in the same column, represent the height 

 which might have been maintained throughout the month, if the water which 

 passed down the river in that time had been discharged uniformly. These tables 

 further exhibit the total annual discharge in cubic feet, and the constant height 

 which might have been maintained upon the Wheeling bar throughout the year, 

 if that discharge had been regulated by art and made uniform. 



This important and interesting inquiry is believed never to have been made 

 for any river with equal care and accuracy ; if, indeed, any authentic experi- 

 ments of the kind have ever before been instituted at all. 



The primary object of the writer was, as already stated, to determine the 

 volume of water discharged by the Ohio at given stages, with a view to decide 

 on the practicability and cost of supplying the deficiency, in times of drought, 

 from stores reserved in artificial lakes from the superabundance which is wasted 

 during floods, so as to maintain the navigation effectually throughout the year. 

 Yet, in the progress of the investigation, other important and equally interesting 

 problems very naturally arose for solution. It was desirable, also, to measure 

 the discharge in times of freshets, so as to be able to judge whether, in the 

 onward strides of science and art, we had not already reached a point where it 



