The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-04-29
RESTORING A GREAT SEA.
An Anericop Scheme OfRunninE the
Water OF the Black Sea into the

~
Water OF the Black Sea into the
Caspian.
From the London Times.
Mr.. Spslding, an American, proposes
to reverse natural process which has
been in action Cor thousands Of y ears, and,
in his opinion, has produced the present
distribution of the human race in Europe.
1t is u question Of turning the waters OF
the Black Sea into the Caspian, and fill.
ing that great inland basin to the depth
which obtained at remote period At
present the Caspian Sea, and, through
kindred influences, the Sea of Aral and
Lake Balkash are losing their waters,
and the vast region which belongs to
their system is becoming desert. Ac
cordlng to Mr.. SpaldiAg, this deteriora-
ton was probably the cause of the great
migrations which history records. Vast
multitudes came forth from the unknown
east because the lands of their birth were
no longer able to support them; by long
wars they obtained possession OF the
whole of Europe, which, with its more
fertile soil and less wa-like population,
invited conquest. The region to which
the American engineer calls attention is
a great basin depressed below the level of
the ocean. The lowest parts are occupied
by the Caspian Sea, which receives, be
sides smaller tributaries. the two great
rivers Ural and Volga, which drain a
large proportion OF the central regions OF
the Russian empire. These rivers have
for ages deposited in the Caspian the soil
of the regions drsined by them The di-
mentions of the sea have consequently be-
come contracted, and the bottom OF what
remains o! it has been raised until very
large areas are becoming unnavigable
By reason also Of the diminution of the
water space available for evaporation, the
surrounding regions are becoming sterile
wastes, and commerce d minishes not
outstanding the approach of civilization.
The only means of arresting this i'm
placable action O! nature is to restore to
the Caspian its cient body of waters,
and consequently its ancient depth and
area This is to be done by cutting a
channel which shall bring into it the wa
tiers of the neighboring Black Sea. The
protector would make a great cutting,
connecting the two seas upon one level
II is to be promised that the Caspian is
considerably lower than the Black Sea
and the Mediterranean, and, therefore, a
continuous flow from the latter into the
former would ensue upon a communica.
ton being made. Mr.. Spalding antici-
pates not only natural but a political
revolution from this artificial cataract.
The force of the water acquired by the
plunge would effect deep excavation,
and IN the end would not only fill the
basin of the Caspian to the level of the
Black Sea, but would form magnificent
harbor IN the former, unassailable by an
enemy. and certain to become the EN-
porium of the commerce of Russia and
western Asia. The author enters into
calculations rs IL the movement of the
water through such channel, and deter
mines that at the end Of forty years from
the beginning of the work the levels of the
two seas would be SO nearly uniform that
navigation OF the new channel could be-
gin. This time could be shortened to
about twenty-five years il, upon the COM
pletlon OF the work already described,
the operation were to be repeated by con-
Meeting the Don and the Volga. The OBJ
iect of this latter work would DO to bring
the waters OF the Sea of Azof to swell the
volume discharging into the Caspian, the
current of the Don being reversed. MIR.
Spalding mentions similar work per-
formed in America by cutting the ridge
of limestone which separated the waters
of the Chicago river from those of the
Illinois river. "The result was that the
current of the Chicago was reversed, and
it now discharges its waters, as well as
those of Lake Michigan, into the Illinois,
and through that via the Mississippi riT-
er into the Gulf OF Mexico, instead ofinto
.ho Calf IF CT Tauranca