Mr. Harts. 
350 DISCUSSION : FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 
expensive dams; a natural reservoir system was, in effect, already in 
existence.* 
It is also reported that this system was tried in France early in 
the last century. In 1856 investigations were made with a view to 
determining whether it should be applied to the Seine, Loire, Rhéne, 
and Garonne, for flood control. These resulted in the decision not to 
construct the reservoirs proposed for these streams, owing to the 
“onecertainty and doubtful efficacy of their action.” In 1875 this 
matter was again examined in France, with a similar result; so that 
in 1881 we find the reservoir system for controlling floods on these 
streams definitely abandoned by the official engineering organization 
of the French Republic.t+ 
In America the experiment has been tried on the Upper Mississippi 
in what are’ known as the Lake Winnibigoshish, Lake Pokegama, Leech 
Lake, and other reservoirs. These also were in a naturally favorable 
location, where almost all the land to be overflowed was unoccupied, 
practically valueless, and already largely covered by lakes. The cost 
of the early surveys for these reservoirs was paid by those corporations 
which were exploiting the water-powers near St. Anthony’s Falls, as 
they were to be incidentally large beneficiaries under the system.t 
Much of the present-day enthusiasm for reservoirs, when traced to 
its logical head, would in all probability likewise be found to emanate 
from those who were expecting to benefit, at Government expense, out 
of the power feature. It seems now to be admitted by many that the 
Mississippi reservoir system as an accessory to the navigability of the 
river was originally urged by the water-power companies as a subter- 
fuge to cover their designs of securing more power at public expense. 
These Mississippi reservoirs have now been in existence many years, 
and notwithstanding that they are the largest in the world used for this 
purpose, having an actual storage of more than 93 000 000 000 cu. ft., 
and have developed valuable water-powers at Minneapolis and else- 
where, the effect on the navigability of the Mississippi River at St. 
Paul has been so slight and the difficulty of maintenance so great that 
the extension of the system to the St. Croix, Chippewa, and Wisconsin 
Rivers for the benefit of navigation has been definitely reported against 
by several boards of engineers constituted to examine the subject. The 
reservoir method for the improvement of navigation on the Ohio 
River, advocated by Charles Ellet, Jr., in 1849 and subsequently, was 
examined in 1878 by a board of engineers, and an unfavorable report 
was submitted after careful study.|| These adverse reports were not 
made through any lack of appreciation of the enormous benefits to be 
*Annual Report, Chief of Engineers, U. S$. Army, 1898, p. 2850. 
tAnnales des Ponts et Chaussées, 6th Series, Vol. I., 1881. 
tAnnual Report, Chief of Engineers, 1870-71, p. 283. 
§Annual Reports, Chief of Engineers, 1881, p. 2758, and 1887, p. 1692. 
‘Annual Report, Chief of Engineers, 1873, p. 541. 
