94 
STATE AaRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
“An impediment, and possibly tbe greatest, in the way of 
the improvement of rivers, is the sudden and great rise of 
water at certain seasons of the year. In the Ohio river the 
flood rises above low water mark as high as sixty feet, and in 
the Illinois, Eock and Chippewa rivers, as high as thirty feet. 
But not so in the Wisconsin. The difference between high 
and low water mark is, at the mouth, ten feet, and at the port¬ 
age six feet. ' Two mountains of rock, twenty miles above the 
portage, situated at each side and close against the river, by 
reducing the channel, hold back the floods. 
“ Major Charles E. Suter, in his report of the survey of this 
river, made January 2, 1867, says : 
‘ Twenty-three miles above Portage City the river passes through the Dalles, 
and is there very much reduced in width. The Dalles act as a dam to 
prevent any very great rise in the lower Wisconsin. The average yearly rise 
is about six feet. In the spring"' of 1866 it rose nine feet, which is the great¬ 
est height it has attained for many years. The rise in the river just above 
the Dalles, on this occasion, was more than fifty feeU 
“ The shifting nature of the sand bars is the main obstacle 
to navigation. It is met with in all the rivers referred to, the 
Illinois, the Mississippi and each of its tributaries, including 
the Wisconsin, and not more in the Wisconsin than in the 
rest. It has long been claimed that the regular passing of 
boats would keep the»channel clear. 
“ Major Suter says : 
‘ In former years, when the Wisconsin was navigated by steamboats, it was 
found that the frequent passage of boats not only deepened the channel but 
tended to keep it permanently in the same location. The pilots who take 
rafts down the river bear testimony to the little stability of the bars and the 
slight disturbance of the bottom which is required to cut a deep channel 
through them.’ 
“ It is probabl} true that an impression has prevailed, more 
or less, that, owing to the shifting sand, the main channel of 
the river, as such, cannot be improved. That question is left 
for settlement to engineers and experience. After a careful 
survey and study of the river, extending over two years, Glen- 
eral Warren has reported that such an improvement of the 
