THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 51 



wide valley, would feel the effect of an increase of speed, certainty of delivery, 

 and reduction of the cost of conveyance. 



It is scarcely to be doubted that the maintenance of a depth of 5 feet in the 

 Ohio alone, at all seasons, would save the country from an annual tax upon its 

 present business of five millions of dollars, or about eight times the sum necessary 

 to produce the saving. 



The value and importance of this navigation, and that of the growing interests 

 dependent upon it, demand an improvement worthy of this Government, and 

 worthy the character of a river, navigable in good water a distance of 1,200 

 miles, and bearing by far the greater portion of an annual commerce already 

 valued at ^220,000,000 ; and no improvement would be worthy of this trade and 

 this position, that will not permit the largest of the New Orleans steamers to 

 ascend the Ohio, without fear of impediment at all seasons, to Cincinnati and 

 Pittsburg. (See Note B.) 



All the efforts which have yet been made to improve the great rivers of this 

 country have proceeded upon a plan of gaining depth without an increase of 

 water. There is, however, no better extensive inland navigation in the world, 

 than that afforded by the natural bosom of the Ohio when well supplied with 

 water ; and the navigation never fails but when the water fails. The simple 

 remedy, therefore, is to supply the deficiency which produces the evil. (See 

 Note C.) 



If an engineer had prepared a plan of improvement, contemplating the exca- 

 vation of a canal as large as the Ohio — a thousand miles long, a thousand feet 

 wide, and seven feet deep — and the excavation of reservoirs capacious enough 

 to supply it with water, it would be easy to demonstrate that such a work is fea- 

 sible, and that the cost might not be greater than the actual value of the river 

 which now connects the seaboard cities with the Mississippi, and floats the 

 commerce of ten or twelve of the States of this Union. The practicability of 

 such a canal could be easily demonstrated, for it involves plans precisely 

 analogous to those of works that have been already executed. Such an enter- 

 prise might even be considered worthy of the destinies of the American people, 

 and in accordance with the spirit of the age in which we hve. 



But the writer has no such magnificent effort to propose — no achievement, 

 even, to compare with the great works already accomphshed by the private 

 enterprise of the country. 



It is not proposed to dig a canal, or to form a reservoir. Nature has already 

 prepared the Ohio river, and excavated for it a channel, capacious enough for 

 the largest steamers. Nature has adjusted its bed so admirably, that no locks 

 are needed to overcome its fall; no dams to break its current ; no aqueducts to 

 carry it over valleys ; no engines to provide it with water, or labor to excavate 

 the lakes which are needed to hold a reserve supply. 



The canal is dug, and the lakes are excavated, and the water is abundantly 

 supplied from the clouds. All that is left for the ingenuity and enterprise of 

 man to accomplish, to perfect the navigation, is to build a few stone walls 



