The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-04-05
Floods and Reservoirs.

Thirty years ago Charles Ellet, a
civil engineer, published large octave
volume upon the floods of the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers, in which he advo-
Gated a system of reservoirs for holding
back the water of those streams and
securing a uniform depth throughout
the year, and he predicted that in few
years this system would be adopted.
When that is done, he predicted that
ground now fire. Iuently inundated and
valueless will be titled and subdued;
sandbars will be permanently covered;
solid wharves will be built as wharves
are by tide water or on the lakes; the
lower streets of river towns will acquire
new values; the Ohio, Missouri and
Mississippi will be made to flow forever
with a constant, deep, and limpid
stream; the ice will be swept off as it
forms, and neither cold nor droughts
will seriously affect navigation.
The great difficulty SO far, he con-
tinues, is to overcome the cold incred-
ulity of the public, SO as to obtain from
Congress sufficient appropriation for
the completion of the first two reser-
voirs. ''This once effected, and a
single practical demonstration made, it
will, perhaps, be as difficult to convince
the future engineer that thing 80
clear and palpable could ever have
been doubted, as it was to remove all
doubts in the first place. More money
has been laid out on three miles of
railroad than would be needed to main
tain the waters of the Ohio within tw
feet of uniform height throughout the
year.
1.-The rain gauge" he says, "will in
dictate the approaching danger from the
SUBMITS of the distant mountains; the
telegraph will announce the fact at the
flood gates, and the whole may thus be
controlled by the provisions of science
In fact, the contemplated effect can be
produced by few dams in the noun
tain gorges and the constant attention
of some twenty men. All that is left
for the ingenuity and enterprise of man
to accomplish in perfecting the naviga-
ton is to build few stone walls across
some of the tributary streams and hold
back a portion of the surplus water in
the lakes that are already formed, and
then provide common sluice-gates to
emit that water into the channel when
it is needed. We should need but four
dams, less than sixty feet high, to Sc
cure the valley of the Upper Ohio
against all destructive floods, capable of
insuring = perpetual navigation for
boats of five feet draft.
The cost of the four dams is estimated
at 81 100000, and certainly not more
than $l,25O,000, rendering l,4OO miles
of the river permanently available.
Ii this estimate be anything like the
actual cost of such work, and if the
scheme is an efficient one, it is ridicu
fous not to set about it at once. The
amount will be given in charity alone
this year to help the victims of these
floods. When the aggregate losses Of
property destroyed outright and the
loss to business by several days sus-
pension, and the losses from low water
during the summer droughts are con-
sidered, 100000 is a mere bagatelle.
The States of Ohio and Kentucky alone
could well afford to spend that amount
for the protection of their own citizens.
Congress throws away ten times that
amount tor useless projects. Railroad
corporations spend like sums or a
bridge or railway station. 1t is slr-
prising that this scheme attracted SC
little attention, even from the people
who annually suffer the calamities it is
intended to prevent. Detroit Post ana
Tribune