The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-07-08
THE FOX AND WISCONSIN IMPROVE.
MENT


MENT.
Gen. G. X. Warren, of the u S. Army
Engineer Corps, who has had charge Of
the government surveys in the North
west, and a very competent judge Of
the subject matter, wrote a letter the
other day. in reference to the Fox and
Wisconsin canal, IN which he says:
have much more confidence i'll making a
canal than other improvement along the val
ley of the Wisconsin river. In low stages
there is too little water with the high slope it
has 10 render success probable by contracting
the stream; but it is probable also that the PEG
pie could never be brought to undertake the
canal until the other way has been tried and
failed.
When say a canal, mean broad one that
will carry the upper Mississippi steam boats
through its locks and allow them to use their
own steam power in the canal
That means that the Wisconsin river
is of no practical use, but that the true
plan would be to dig a canal along side
OF the river. The advantages would be
that the river would keep the canal COM
pany when it was lonesome; and the
canal could be called .the Fox and Wis
consin river improvement. But
wouldn't it be as well to dig the canal
somewhere --lse-say from the St. Croix
to Lake Superior?
An excursion party lately visited the
Fox and Wisconsin canal; members OF
Congress and newspaper correspondents
were with it; and the reports they send
back are anything but encouraging and
mplimentary.
A correspondent Of the Minneapolis
Mail, who signs himself "Old Soldier,
writes as follows
This Wisconsin river is more of a stream
than expected to see. 1t appears to have
nearly as much volume Of water in il as the
Mississippi above st Anthony Falls. The
! government engineers say that If ii was mar
rowed down and confined to permanent banks
it would furnish a channel three hundred feet
wide ano SIX feet deep, from Portage to Prai-
RE du Chen. But the bottom is a. uncertain
as t'Oid Probs" is nowadays. Sometimes
YOU have it, and again you dona.n channel
on the right bank TO dav may be on the LET,
next week. Even that followed by boat Only
three days up, in coming down is entirely
changed in some places. And the sand is &c
| peculiar, too. 1t moves in perpendicular
banks, and by this | mean exactly what | say
The lower side Of each is as abrupt a. he
cliffs along the Mississippi. The water catches
| it on the upper side and rolls it over and over,
and it drops off this bank particle by particle
until, perhaps, it has formed an obstruction
nearly across the stream. Then the chok-o
Z l.
| a new channel ON the other bank. Tie engi-
neers have tried to control this By placing
wing dams at the heads Of sloughs and islands
! and combining tn stream As write | can al
most touch the left bank while it il fully a
third OF mile to the other shore In the mid
die of the stream Is a bar formed by the last
| freshet which has divided it, and the boat il
laboring fearfully to get through. We shall
| " hen getting over the head Of the bar, doubt.
| less b. obliged to &C diagonally across to the
right bank, for notice ripple in the water
| which indicates that . new formation cuts on,
/ from our left shore which forces the channel in
an opposite direction No wonder that the
government engineers are bothered and con-
slider the stream hard one to manage.
While A. B. Donaldson who accom-.
panied the same excursion, writes to the
Pioneer Press:
| The Wisconsin rver g unlike any other In
the United States east Of the Mississippi 1t il
almost second edition OF the Plat !, and but
slightly improved in the revision. The vol
| uIne OF water il large, estimated by the gov
eminent enxineers at three-fiffhs Of that OF tbs
| Mississippi ct St. Paul: but ii il spread out in
wide shadows over beds Of fine. shifting
ssnds which I'LL up almost the sntirv rive1
bed We, to-day, passed hundreds Of acres
If liars lust out Of water, hundreds mors
barely covered with water, and for miles
labored our way over shoals less than two fe-'
deep Three times we were aground on the
flats of Prairie du Bay, twice we stuck on Blue
| River bars. and in many other places WI
secured the bottom Of the boat. SIxteeT
inches floats us clear. In coming up the nve1
ii miles, the steamer has probably run 81
miles on account Of zigza4 ing around the bars
The river i not now at its lowest stage: yea
it is perfectly clear that, in its present condi
| tion-noswitstanding the large sums already
/ expended Ia the construction u wing dams. i
is OF little or no vaiue n a cheap water rout.
, to the s-aboard-
An accredited correspondent Of thu
Minneapolis Tribune writes that paper
]! Coming through Il Lone. Rock We wer.
| washed up against the piers Putting the an
| Choir into skif one Of the hands jumped il
and pulled for the channel II Was hard pull
ing, and becoming disguised, be drDppsi hi
oars and jumping ont, uzded, pushing tn
boat ahead Of him, to the desired point, Wher
be dropped II anch0F md stood On 4 70 hol<
Il down Ard this i IT, re1t chsAp trans