54 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF 



not probable that the cost of each dam, with its lock, valves, syphons, and 

 appurtenances, will exceed $200,000 or $250,000. 



It has been the duty of the writer, at former periods, to conduct surveys along 

 a considerable portion of the Upper Alleghany, and the whole of the Great 

 Kanawha, and to become familiar with the character of the Monongahela as far 

 as it is susceptible of improvement. Aided by this personal knowledge and the 

 facts acquired in the present investigation, he hazards the opinion that less than 

 a million and a quarter of dollars will suffice to supply the Ohio with a depth 

 sufficient for boats of 5 feet draught ; to carry an open and permanent river navi- 

 gation up the Alleghany to Franklin, and a slack water navigation, during three- 

 fourths of the year, from Franklin to the line of the Erie railroad in New York ; 

 improve the navigation of the Monongahela into Virginia, and extend that of 

 the Kanawha 70 or 80 miles above Point Pleasant — supplying water powers of 

 unrivalled capacity and permanence, on numerous lines of steamboat naviga- 

 tion, and curbing most essentially the destructive power of the floods. 



Viewing the insignificant cost for which about 1,400 miles of river navigation 

 may thus be rendered permanently available — without reference to the inciden- 

 tal advantages that will flow from the work — it may well be doubted whether 

 there is, in the whole circle of contemplated public improvements, a projected 

 enterprise which more seriously demands the care and consideration of those 

 who are charged with the protection of the pubhc interests. 



The difficulty which the mind first encounters in contemplating this proposi- 

 tion arises from the apparent immensity of the mass of waters to be dealt with. 

 But this is only a speculation. The quantity has been measured, and found to 

 be easily attainable and perfectly manageable. 



The total discharge of the Ohio, in ordinary low water, is but 6,000,000 cubic 

 feet per hour. A pipe no larger than one of those used for conveying the water 

 of the Croton water-works — or three feet in diameter — will discharge very 

 nearly 1,000,000 cubic feet per hour under a head of 60 feet. Six such pipes, 

 then, placed in a dain only 60 feet high, and provided with proper valves, would 

 emit water enough to double the quantity flowing down the Ohio at its usual 

 summer stage. And if there were three such dams on different streams, and 

 Vl pipes in each, and one man to superintend each dam, and obey the tele- 

 graphic signal to open or close the valves — or an equipment equal to three 

 dams no higher than have been already built in this country, and 36 pipes equal 

 in diameter to the mains in Broadway, and three men to manage the whole — 

 the quantity of water could be increased six-fold, and the navigation could be 

 maintained above 5 feet during all ordinary droughts. At the same time, such 

 is, happily, the form of many of the western valleys, that dams of double this 

 height can be often erected without injury to any appreciable amount of pro- 

 perty, improved or susceptible of improvement. 



