The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1882-05-02
VIVA. Eugineer Thinks .
EpIToE AsTORIAS:

EDITOR AsT0RlAS:
The article headed River and Bar
Improvement" in ti;e Daily Oregonisn
OF April oath, is curious specimen.
He speaks Of the bad engineering as
tho mouth Of tho Mississippi as beng
the Gauss of the overflow Of the valley
above. He forgets that the overflow
began above, ard that it would have
began at the bottom il it was caused
By ietties at the month. Who has
ever heard OF dam raising the water
at the mouth of stream before it did /
ut the dam. lie saya no engineer
would advocate the use II jetties. If .
be did he wouid be cn iniraror. It {
seems TO me ,hat hNgr heard some !
where tha, fools orly learn l'y experi- |
encc. therefore wise men aVe imita-
tors.
Jetties ara good or bad according
10 The way they arc put in. ii badly
put in they are obstruc;ions t" the
free aow Of river, and il rightly pat
in they assist the fow Of river and
cause 1t To empty itself much faster
AL engineer and river men kno~
thai tha eddios Of river cause an up
ward Gow of water and where fhe
BENDS are numerous this upward
flow is often quite large, perhaps equal
10 on. quarter Of the water running
in the river. and is spread ont over
flats and bars where boats can't use it,
and occupies moro Of the river than
the channels whera the water is How
ing southward. One use Of jetties is
to stop this upward dow and keep the
water down when once down. Would
such use Of jetties cause inundations3
Another use of jettiea is where a
river forms a Junction With II larger
one. II the smaller one empties into
| the larger, ut or near tho right angles,
| the large would continually I'LL the
month of the smaller with sediment.
To remedy this jetty should bo
extended from the upper side If the
sm5lier river and continued down the
iargor river and gradually curVing the
current Of the smaller anil il IS run-
| ming parallel with tbs iorger, when it
! can be left to itaeii Would such use
81 ietties causa overflow! | think il
would rather help the dos. These
are the priucipia Hs.,s 81 jet'ieS ac-
cordiug 10 Eads. IL any one an
learn.
IN speaking u Tho esusr ol river
bars, Knapp Dnce said in New York
tha; the ,cean throw mp ,he sand.
Now anybody @ho has srer observed
the action al The waves on shore
knows that the water runs in NJ the
surface and runs out rn the bottom
and ia continually wearing away The
shore ihe simple and only reason
for bar is the river water ia stopped at
that place by finding ,ts level, and
gives the sediment chance to settle.
; Tbe Columbia river is nov tntned
; from direct course IT, sea 10y the
shape vi. its north shore hHc, which
} causes It ~ turn to the south. This
south angle Of ti.o river gives n mort h
erly current along Cls,sop beach. car
rying the sand stirred mp hp the srrfs
into the mouth of the ,iver, thus max
ing the river do double dnty-iirst, in
: washing ont It's Own deposits. and sec,
4 ond, tbs deposits OF its eddy on the
beach; So ii is easy to sec that shore
: line on the south Of the Columbia. ex-
tending out even with The Cape Oh
s tho north, would beoftyreat service in
keeping the river together until reach,
ing deep water aud also checking tlia
q encroachmeat of the Clatsop beacl
sand Such shore line might b
made without such M enormous ox
panse, as some seem 10 think Tht
. Columbia has this advantage over th'
. Mississippi: 1t has deep water outside
the har, which the Mississippi has'not
Il ENGITEER