Mr. Harts. 
356 DISCUSSION: FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 
In general, it may be stated that the rights of riparian owners have 
never been definitely ascertained. “They are as ancient as the 
riparian settlements, and are inevitably a thorn in the impounder’s 
side.” As stated by Fanning :* 
“The Courts and Legislatures of the manufacturing States have 
wrestled with this question, their judges have grown hoary while they 
pondered it, and their attorneys have prospered, and yet who shall 
say what riparian rights shall be, until the Court has considered 
all anew.” 
Nor must we by any chance overlook the danger of such a system. 
Our memories are still fresh with regard to the disastrous flood at 
Johnstown, caused by a breached dam on the South Fork of the Little 
Conemaugh River, Pa. This dam failed on May 31st, 1889, causing 
a loss of 2280 lives and from $3 000000 to $4000000. The Bouzey 
Dam, near Epinal, France, failed on April 27th, 1895, resulting in 
the loss of nearly 150 lives. Only a few months ago the Hauser Lake 
Dam, built at a cost of about $1500 000, failed, causing the complete 
destruction of the Village of Craig, Mont. The dam at Austin, Tex., 
failed in 1900, on account of neglect to protect properly an insufficient 
foundation, although the cross-section was of good design. 
The number of successful dams undoubtedly far exceeds the failures; 
but the best practice of the most skilful engineers can never remove | 
entirely the danger of failure. The storage of enormous quantities of 
water far above the levels of the populous valleys would be a constant 
and terrible menace to all enterprises. No one can fail to realize 
that the destruction would be tremendous in case of failure of one of 
these dams, so that the values of all manufacturing, real estate, and 
other property in the threatened areas would be affected. For it must 
be remembered that these dams would necessarily be placed, in many 
cases, where foundations are inadequate, where rock is not readily 
obtainable, and where exact knowledge as to conditions of construc- 
tion is not to be secured. Local conditions in the Southern Appala- 
chians are not as favorable for reservoir construction as in the regions 
farther north where the rock has been bared by glacial action. 
In the case of the Tennessee River Basin, we see a dam proposed 
for the French Broad, one of its tributaries, having a height of 
200 ft., and impounding 199 600 000 000 cu. ft. of water. The height 
of the South Fork Dam above Johnstown, Pa., was about 70 ft., and 
its capacity was 466000000 cu. ft. The dam now proposed for the 
French Broad River is nearly three times as high and has a storage 
capacity of more than 400 times as much water. In case of failure 
of such a dam there would be no warning, and the effect might 
perhaps be measured by the Johnstown flood. Nothing could save 
the lower parts of Knoxville and Chattanooga from widespread ruin, 
*“Treatise on Hydraulic and Water Supply Engineering,” 1887, p. 85. 
