48 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF 



who assured the writer that " he had floated twenty-four hours on a falUng river, 

 without once wetting a sweep." 



Ahhough, in this paper, the computations have only been made with a view 

 to the reduction of the extreme height of the flood-wave, so as to show that it 

 is quite practicable to render it harmless, there are many interests in society 

 which would be promoted by a further extension of the system, and an ultimate 

 approach toward an equalization of the daily discharge. It is quite reasonable 

 to suppose that, in course of time, all the waters of all the navigable rivers will 

 be required to supply the wants of man and his commerce. Reservoirs may 

 eventually be made, of sufficient capacity to hold all the annual excess, and make 

 the daily flow almost entirely uniform. The banks of the Ohio and Mississippi, 

 now broken by the current and lined with fallen trees, ready to be swept by the 

 next freshet into the channel, there to form dangerous snags, may yet, in the 

 course of a very few years, be cultivated and adorned down to the water's edge. 

 In the opinion of the writer, the grass will hereafter grow luxuriantly along the 

 caving banks ; all material fluctuations of the waters will be prevented, and the 

 level of the river's surface will become nearly stationary. Grounds, which are 

 now frequently inundated and valueless, will be tilled and subdued ; the sand- 

 bars will be permanently covered, and, under an uniform regimen of the stream, 

 will probably cease to be produced. The channels will become stationary. 

 The wharves will be built as the wharves on tide water, with little, if any, refer- 

 ence to the fluctuations of the surface. The lower streets of all the river 

 towns, no longer exposed to inundations, will acquire new value. The turbid 

 waters will be arrested in the upper pools, and the Ohio first, and ultimately the 

 Missouri and Mississippi, will be made to flow forever with a constant, deep, 

 and limpid stream. The ice will be swept off" as it forms, and neither cold nor 

 droughts will longer be suffered injuriously to affect the navigation. The Ocean 

 steamers will not then be confined to tide waters, but will be able safely to 

 ascend the living streams to sea ports on their borders, and the extent of the 

 inland navigation will be limited only by the limit to the water which is supplied 

 by the atmosphere. 



All this may be accomplished on the Oliio for about the cost of three or four 

 ships of the line. The great and only difficulty is to overcome the cold incre- 

 dulity of the public, so as to induce those in power to grant a sufficient appro- 

 priation for the completion of the first two reservoirs. This once accomplished, 

 and a single practical demonstration made, it will be difficult to convince the 

 future engineer that a thing so clear and palpable could ever be doubted. 



As an effort of art, the work of controlling the floods of the great rivers of 

 the Mississippi valley, will never compare with the labors of men in other 

 departments of practical science. More money has been laid out on three miles 

 of railroad than would be needed to maintain the waters of the Ohio within two 

 feet of an uniform height throughout the year ; to add a length of several hun- 

 dred miles to the river navigation of the country, and render more than two 



