118 Mr Ellet on the Proper Application of 



revelations; and if bound after bound were taken, and new 

 spheres of space for ten thousand repetitions explored, — 

 should we not probably find each additional sphere of tele- 

 scopic vision garnished with suns and nebulous configurations 

 rich and marvellous as our own ? If these views serve to 

 enlarge our conception of creative wonders, and of the glory 

 and power of the Great Architect of the heavens, should 

 they not deeply impress us in respect to the Divine conde- 

 scension in regarding so graciously this little, inferior world 

 of ours ! Animated with the spirit of the Psalmist, we shall 

 each one, surely, be disposed appropriately to join in his 

 emphatic saying, — " When I consider thy heavens, the work 

 of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast or- 

 dained ; what is man, that thou art mindful of him ? or the 

 son of man, that thou visitest him ? V 



Of the Proper Application of Reservoirs to the Improvement 

 of Rivers. By Charles Ellet Jun., Civil Engineer, 

 United States of America. 



It is not intended to recommend the mode of collecting 

 the superfluous water into reservoirs for their improvement 

 to all streams. It is only those rivers, or parts of rivers, on 

 which the imperfections of the channel are caused essentially 

 by a deficiency of water in seasons of drought, and not by the 

 rapidity of their fall, or obstructions in their beds, that are 

 susceptible of this mode of improvement. Rivers which, 

 like the Ohio, Alleghany, Cumberland, and Tennessee, are 

 always navigable when there is sufficient water in their 

 channels to float the boats freely, but of which the naviga- 

 tion fails because the supply of water fails, and on which 

 lakes may be formed at small expense, without injury to 

 valuable property or to the salubrity of the country, — such 

 rivers as these can be best, most cheaply, permanently, and 

 effectually improved, by collecting a portion of the waters 

 which are wasted in producing floods, and holding them in 

 store for the season when the sources of supply fail to render 

 their customary tribute to the channel. 



