The Portland daily press., 1870-01-04
Wells Water.Power Of Maine.

0 Peope VI Maine VIII now soon realize
the full Importance of the movement for a
photographic survey which was initiated in
1867. John A. Poor, A. D. Lockwood and
Hannibal Hamlin, the Commissioners ap
pointed by the Governor, retired at the close
of that year, after seeing the work through its
preliminary stages, leaving Walter Wells,
Secretary of Commission, who was subse-
quently appointed Superintendent of the Hy-
geographic Survey, to 60 on with the investi-
gatlons Tor which he had shown such singular
aptitude. The result is the volume of 526
pages now before us, entitled the Water-P oayer
of Maine, work which is creditable alike to
its writer and to the State that authorized its
publication.
Ihe preliminary reports made by the Com
missloners and the Secretary in 1867 were full
OF interesting facts, but they were little more
than an outline which Mr.. Wells has since
hlled out. The fiaal report embraces much
besides a bald account of the number and eco
nomieal value of the water powers of the
State, with general statements in regard 10
the river and lake systems upon which their
continued efficiency depends. The authors
profound requirements in the domain of phys
lcal geography have enabled him to treat the
subject philosophically, and to give, as we be-
heve, more intelligent, perspicuous and in
teresting account of Names photographic sys-
tenn and of the facilities for its utilization
than could have been given by anyone else of
whose services the State could avail ITSELF
Even the ground covered by the preliminary
report is gone over again more thoroughly, and
many additions and corrections are made. In
the provisional report of 1867 are embraced re-
turns from 81 municipalities, embodying
1855 water-pewers, while 595 towns, embody
ing at least 3,100 powers, are represented in
the present report The department. of spe-
cific information is therefore very full. and is
based upon SO wide an induction of facts as to
indicate the most untiring industry on the
part of the author.
But to the intelligent student of this work
the specific facts will not prove of the most in
terest, but his attention will be particularly
directed to the mastery way in which Mr..
Wells treats of those physical features of our
State which account for and insure the per-
petuity of its unrivalled natural facilities for
the establishment of the manufacturing indus
tries. 1t is interesting to know that in the ag-
gregate our water courses furnish an available
powers; that the approximate area of the
lakes, ponds and rivers of the State is 5000
square miles, and the area of forests q 900
square miles, that Maine has 1868 lakes. more
In proportion to its size than any other part of
the globe, with three or four exceptions, and
that ], 229, 200,0 900 cubic feet of water are
annually delivered by our rivers. And it is
still more interesting to be told how the geo.
graphical situation of the State, Just half way
between the equator and the pole, brings it
ABOUT that our rainfall is only moderately
evaporated and is not wholly converted into
ice and snow, that the winds are variable and
not periodic and consequently that the pre-
cipitation of moisture is non-periodic = in
Short how the geographical situation OF
Maine enables it to command the advantage
lts water-power to the maximum; how the
continental position of the State, on the lee
ward of the continent, in the rain draft of the
Gulf of Mexico, on the seaboard projected from
the United States coast line at the Northeast
corner OF the grand division and exposed to
Gull Stream vapors, induces a rainfall materi.
ally above that due to its astronomic position
a1d an unusual Volume and constancy of
Volume in the rivers; how the great Southern
slope OF the State has just the right lseaward
pitch-about 5m. circular measuremept-to
carry off the waters without protracted expos
ure and waste and at the same time without
hurrying them off in unmanagable volumes
to be succeeded by death; how the declivity is
uniformly distributed from its interior limit
on an average 140 miles from the sea-to the
coast, so as to insure water-powers the whole
distance; how the brokenness of the surface
the hardness of the rocks and their arrange
ment, and the feasibility of natural and artif-
cial reservoirs have further favorable effect
upon the relations of the slope to the water
power. We can of course give only the most
meagre outline of Mr.. Wells elaborate dis
cussion of the typographical, geological and
meteorological characteristics of the State so
far as they are related to water-power He
has not yielded to the temptation of drawing
unnecessarily from his rich stores of informa-
ton on these related themes, but has most
conscentiously excluded everything not hay
ing a direct bearing on his main topic.