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

TIE FOA ANU WISCONSIN, lMPHOve.
MENT.
Gen G. X. Warren, Of the q. S. Army
Engineer Corps, who has had charge Of
the government surveys in the North
west, and very competent judge Of
the subject matter, wrote letter the
other day. in reference to the Fox and
Wisconsin canal, IN which he says:
have much more confidence in 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 TO render success probable by contracting
pie could never be brought to undertake the
canal until the other way has been tried and
failed.
When say canal, mean broad one that
will carry the upper Mississippi steam boats
Though 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 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 1.-The Fox and Wis
consin river improvement. But
wouldn t it be as well to dig the canal
somewhere Else 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
complimentary.
A correspondent Of the Minneapolis
Mail, who signs himself "Old Soldier
writes as follows:
This Wisconsin river is more of stream
than expected to see. 1t appears to have
nearly as much volume Of water in it as the
Mississippi above st Anthony Falls. The
government engineers say that if it was mar
it would furnish q channel three hundred feet
wide ano six feet deep, from Portage to Prai
RE du Chen. But the bottom is as uncertain
as ''Old Probs'' is nowadays. ssSometimes
you have it, and again you don't" channel
on the right bank to-day may be on the left
next week Even that followed BY q boat oEly
three days up, in coming down j. entirely
peculiar, too. It moves in perpendicular
banks, and BY this mean exactly what | say.
The lower side Of each is as abrupt as ihe
cliffs along the Mississippi. The water catches
it on the upper side and rolls it over and over,
and it drops of this bank particle by particle
until, perhaps, it has formed an obstruction
nearly across the stream Then the choke0
current cuts around from behind and forms
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 confning tn stream. As write, can al
most touch the LETT bank while it is fully
third Of mile to the other shore. In the mid
die Of the stream is bar formed by the last
freshee which has divided it, and the boat Is
laboring feArfully to get through. We shall,
" hen getting over the head OF the bar, doubt
less be obliged to sc diagonally across to the
right hank, for notice : ripple in the water
which indicates that new formation cuts ont
from our LEFT shore which forces the channel in
an opposite direetson- 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 river . unlike any other in
the United States sast Of the Mississippi Il is
almost second edition of the Platt !, and but
slightly improved In the revision. The vol
ume Of water il s2ee, estimated By the gov
ernment enxineess q three-fft of that Of the
Mississippi = s. Paul; bgt i y spread out in
sands which I'll mp almost the entirv TiveT
bed. We, to-day, passed hundreds Of acres
Of hars lust ont q water, hundreds more
barely covered with water, and for miles