DIVERSION OF THE RHINE. 
533 
Plaines, a tributary of the Mississippi, is only twenty-seven 
feet above the lake, and the intervening distance is but a very 
few miles. It has often been proposed to cut an open channel 
across this ridge, and there is no doubt of the practicability of 
the project. Were this accomplished, although such a cut 
would not, of itself, form a navigable canal, a part of the 
waters of Lake Michigan would be contributed to the Gulf of 
Mexico, instead of to that of St. Lawrence, and the flow might 
be so regulated as to keep the Illinois and the Mississippi at 
flood at all seasons of the year. The increase in the volume 
of these rivers would augment their velocity and their trans¬ 
porting power, and consequently, the erosion of their banks 
and the deposit of slime in the Gulf of Mexico, while the in¬ 
troduction of a larger body of cold water into the beds of these 
rivers would very probably produce a considerable effect on 
the animal life that peoples them. The diversion of w T ater 
from the common basin of the great lakes through a new chan¬ 
nel, in a direction opposite to their natural discharge, would 
not be absolutely without influence on the St. Lawrence, 
though probably the effect would be too small to be in any 
way perceptible. 
Diversion of the Rhine . 
The interference of physical improvements with vested 
rights and ancient arrangements, is a more formidable obstacle 
in old countries than in new, to enterprises involving anything 
approaching to a geographical revolution. Hence such pro¬ 
jects meet with stronger opposition in Europe than in Amer¬ 
ica, and the number of probable changes in the face of nature 
in the former continent is proportionally less. I have noticed 
some important hydraulic improvements as already executed' 
or in progress in Europe, and I may refer to some others as 
contemplated or suggested. One of these is the diversion of 
the Rhine from its present channel below Ragatz, by a cut 
through the narrow ridge near Sargans, and the consequent 
turning of its current into the Lake of Wallenstadt. This 
would be an extremely easy undertaking, for the ridge is but 
