Reservoirs to the Improvement of Rivers. 121 



Further west, the field of valuable improvement is im- 

 mense. Probably 2000 miles of precarious navigation on 

 the Missouri alone, may be rendered permanent and safe by 

 a few dams constructed upon the great tributaries above the 

 mouth of the Yellow Stone ; and, as civilisation is carried 

 by steam into those distant regions, it is reasonable to sup- 

 pose that the same incidental advantages to society will be 

 experienced there, which, it can be shewn, are certain to fol- 

 low the application of this system on the Ohio. 



It is not asserting more than the measurements presented 

 in this paper will justify, when it is maintained that it is en- 

 tirely in the power of man to control all the waters of the 

 Mississippi and the Missouri, and compel every river to flow 

 with an even current from its source in the Alleghany or 

 Rocky Mountains, to its home in the ocean, for ever free from 

 the hurtful effects of floods and droughts. 



The writer can scarcely hope immediately to remove the 

 suspicion and distrust with which the first announcement 

 of his plan was met by the public ; but yet he believes that 

 the period is past when prejudice or doubt can long resist 

 the force of demonstration. When, in a former age, it was 

 proposed in Spain to unite two rivers by a navigable canal, 

 a commission of the Inquisition decided against the project, 

 on the broad ground that, if it had been the will of God that 

 those rivers should be united, they would have been joined 

 in their creation. The decision was in conformity with the 

 spirit of the age and the people, and was doubtless dictated 

 by honest views of piety and right. 



But times have changed, and men are learning to look 

 upon this earth and all it contains as a gift from God to the 

 beings of his creation, to be used, explored, studied, and im- 

 proved. 



The waters are not the least of these bounteous gifts. But 

 it does not follow, because they are supplied in abundance, 

 they were intended for ever to be wasted. It is more in 

 unison with what is known of the original design, to conclude 

 that the apparent excess was intended for many useful pur- 

 poses ; to be collected for the benefit of the parched earth ; 

 for the power that it affords ; for the transportation of the 



