18 APPALACHIAN AND WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 



The Weather Bureau carefully mvestigated the damage along the 

 Ohio River from the floods of January and March, 1907, and found 

 that the property loss, not including damage to soil and river channel, 

 amounted to 19,900,000, most of which was sustained by the city of 

 Pittsburg. The report of the Geological Survey shows that the now 

 of 1,950 square miles, or 35 per cent of the drainage area of the Monon- 

 gahela, can be stored for a full year, and that by such storage the 

 low-water stage in the Monongahela can be increased by 6 feet 

 throughout the longest dry-season period ever known in the history 

 of the river. The measurements snow that by the storage of this 

 water in the Monongahela an increase of stage of 3 feet can be effected 

 in the Ohio River at Wheeling for a period considera]>ly longer than 

 four months. This means a distinct improvement for both naviga- 

 tion and flood conditions. With 35 per cent of tlie Monongahela 

 water subject to storage, the flood damage at Pittsburg and Wheeling 

 would be almost eliminated. With the minunrmi stage of the Ohio 

 at Wheeling increased by 3 feet, the coveted 9-foot stage between 

 Pittsburg and Cincinnati would all but be secured. 



The streams which drain the White Mountain region are all navi- 

 gable in their lower courses. The Connecticut River is the most 

 important for its commerce. Commerce in considerable volume is 

 carried on from the mouth to Hartford, 30 miles, and small boats by 

 way of the Windsor Ijocks may ascend as far as Holyoke, Mass. The 

 Androscoggin, Kennebec, and Saco in their upper courses are used to 

 a la,rge extent for the driving of logs. The lower Kennebec supports 

 an extensive ice traffic. 



FOREST DETERMINES POSSIBILITIES OF WATER POWER AND 

 ARTIFICIAL STORAGE. 



The forest bears a vital relation to successful utilization of water 

 power and effectual artificial storage. No matter what its purpose 

 or design, any reservoir system developed in the Southern Appa- 

 lachians is foredoomed to failure unless the watersheds which feed it 

 are kept under forest. The present torrential discharge of the 

 streams is due to the extent to which the forest has been cut away or 

 damaged. The more this sole equalizing factor is lessened, the more 

 extreme will be the floods on the one hand and low-water sta-ges on 

 the other. A mountain watershed denuded of its forest, with its 

 surface hardened and baked by exposure, will discharge its fallen rain 

 into the streams so quickly that overwhelming floods will descend in 

 wet seasons. In discharging in this torrential way the water carries 

 along great portions of the land itself. Deep gullies are v/ashed in 

 the fields, and the soil, sand, gravel, and stone are carried down the 

 streams to points where the current slackens. The stone and gravel 

 are likely to be dropped in the upper channel of the stream, to be 

 rolled along by subsequent floods, but the sand and silt are carried 

 down to the still v.ater of the first reservoir, where they are depos- 

 ited. It is this silting up that makes uncertain any reservoir system 

 outside the limits of a forested watershed. 



Since the extensive removal of the forest on the upper watersheds 

 there has been a vast accumulation of silt, sand, ancl gravel in the 

 upper stream courses. Examples of reservoirs completely filled are 

 alreadj^ to be seen on almost every stream. Removal of the silt is 



