434 DISCUSSION: FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 
Mr. McMath. succession of flood-waves, as the season advances, it is impossible to 
foresee what height on the gauge may be reached by a known volume. 
When the Government undertakes to construct and maintain a 
levee system covering a long extent of river, the fact is accepted as 
a guaranty that complete protection will be furnished, and that the 
protected areas will invite occupancy and cultivation. If the levees 
are overtopped by unforeseen combinations of floods or are extensively 
breached by any of several forms of attack, the dire disaster to life 
and property will be greater as the levees are higher and as the sense 
of Government assurance of security is stronger. 
The author has favored us with quite a long list of lions which may 
lie in wait in a reservoir system. ‘The writer merely uncovers the 
existence of very savage lions along the levees’ track as well. The 
moral is, use levees, reservoirs, and other methods of improvement 
within their appropriate limits and for proper purposes. 
The appropriate limits and purposes of reservoirs depend upon 
conditions which vary with latitude, climate, topography, elevation, 
seasons of excess and deficiency of precipitation, the use made of 
impounded waters, the unreasonableness of men, and, the writer deems 
it necessary to add, to administrative action under defective legislation 
or want of legislation. 
The latitude and climatic conditions of the Upper Mississippi differ 
radically from those of the Ohio Valley. The topography conditions 
of flat and hilly gathering grounds, season, and rate and quantity of 
precipitation are also very unlike. If there should be an Ohio system 
of reservoirs, there is little doubt but the leading or primary use would 
be for power, and so the executive in charge of operation, and there 
must be a supervising executive, may be relieved from the embarrass- 
ment of the Upper Mississippi executive, who tries to satisfy seven 
different and often conflicting interests (town water supply and irtiga- 
tion might have added two more) without authority to decide which 
is entitled to preference or precedence.* 
The shadow of the author’s official experience in this connection is 
noticeable in the later pages of the paper. The whole story could not 
be’ told by an officer of Engineers, because it might be construed as 
criticism of “Official Superiors.” A civilian is at liberty to say that 
the fault lies, with many others, at the door of The Congress. 
To sum up the reservoir part of the writer’s discussion: 
1. Artificial reservoirs do have and will have a considerable moderat- 
ing influence on floods, but that influence cannot control extreme 
cases; extremes, however, are exceptions. 
2. Artificial reservoirs have many beneficial uses and, in comparison, 
few drawbacks. 
3. Whether a possible reservoir site is or is not available, is a local 
*Report, Chief of Engineers, U.S. A., 1905, Vol. VI, p. 1676. 
