BYBEE-MALOTT : THE FLOOD OF 1913 



215 



great levees have been built, sometimes in reinforcing series of two 

 or three at different distances back from the channel where the 

 stream bed is above the adjacent country, in order to prevent the 

 widespread disaster and to limit the inundated areas in times of 

 unusual floods. Again, in the Canton delta there are hundreds of 

 miles of sea wall and dikes, so that the aggregate mileage of (;onst ruc- 

 tion work in the Empire can only be measured in the thousands of 

 miles. ... In addition to the canal and levee construction 

 works there are numerous impounding reservoirs which are brought 

 into requisition to control overflow waters from the great streams. 

 Some of these reservoirs, like the Tungting Lake in Hupeh and Pc- 

 yang in Hunan, have areas of 2,000 and 1,800 square miles respectively 

 and during the heaviest rainy seasons each may rise through twenty 

 or thirty feet. Then there are other large and smaller lakes in the 

 coastal plains giving an aggregate reservoir area exceeding 18,000 

 square miles. All of which are brought into service in controlling 

 the flood waters, all of which are steadily being filled with the sedi- 

 ments brought from the far-away uncultivated mountain slopes, 

 and which are ultimately destined to become rich alluvial plains, 

 doubtless to be canalized in the manner that we have seen.' 



King also shows how by the process of building up the low 

 swamp land with sediment that is deposited in the reservoirs and 

 in the canals that the land has been pushed out into the sea. By 

 this process, the shore has been pushed seaward from. 15 to 50 miles 

 since the beginning of the Christian era. 



He sums up the effect of these processes that w^e have been 

 €onsidering in the following words; 'Besides these actual extensions 

 of the shore lines the centuries of flooding of the lakes and low 

 lying lands has so filled many depressions as to convert large areas 

 of swamp into cultivated fields. Not only this, but the spreading 

 of the canal mud broadcast over the encircling fields has had two 

 very important effects namely, raising the level of the low lying 

 fields, giving them better drainage and so better physical condi- 

 tions, and adding new plant food in the form of virgin soil of the 

 richest type, thus contributing to the maintenance of soil fertility, 

 high maintenance capacity and permanent agriculture through all 

 the centuries.' 



In the United States, along the same lines, now that we are 

 considering tke development of inland water ways, the subject 

 should be surveyed broadly and much careful study may well ])e 

 given to the works these old people have developed and found 

 serviceable through so many centuries. The Mississippi River is 



