Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-07-06
THE GREAT VALLEY.
The Government Engineers on an
Important Mission.
The Steamer Patrol and the Duty of
Her Crew-A Scientific survey
OF the Mississippi.

l. VI oolnC WCchS Lew CIhll HAS Uccu
in the waters of the Mississippi here
abouts. The boat is the government
steamer, Patrol. Her crew is in charge
Of Capt Hockbridge and Engineer Stew
art of the regular army corps, who are
making systematic metrical survey of
the valley of the Mississippi from the
gulf to the source of the great stream.
The Patrol is of fair proportions, bein G
no feet long and 80 feet wide, and is ad-
mirably equipped and adapted for the
use to which it is put, being devoted ex-
clusely to the service of a government
engineering party.
The engineering party is at present
working on the rapids in the vicinity of
Hampton. Triangular surveys are made
from bluff to bluff. or about mile and a
half out from either shore and are taken
preparatory to making soundings OF the
stream which will probably be COM
menced along in August, during the peri
cd of low water. The surveys and
souudings are made to furnish the data
necessary :or preparing a Typographical
map of the valley,
No chart of this kind has eyer been
made of the Mississippi valley and the
powers that be at Washington have
determined to procure a complete topo-
graphical map of the valley from the
rivers source to its mouth. Gen. Com
stock, head of the river commission, is
personally experimenting the undertake
ing, which has already been in progress
for several years, and map Of the lower
river extending from the Gulf of Mexico
to the Ohio river is already completed.
A vast amount Of labor is required to
finish the map, two years being the time
in which any part of it can be perfected
after the surveys are made. The cost of
this enterprise cannot be approximated,
but it is evidently prodigious enough to
make noticeable inrosd on the national
treasury, sums being appropriated for the
purpose from time to time by congress as
they are needed.
At the present rate at which the work
is being carried forward it will require
four or five years at least to reach the
headwaters of the Mississippi.
The Patrol and its force were pres sed
into this service year ago last April and
since then have been working up from
Alton. H.. to Hannibal, Mo-, besides do
ing extra work demanded by the interests
of navigation above the latter point.
When the season of navigation closed
with the advent of ice, the boat and crew
left for southern waters, going as far
south as Donaldsonville. La, and spent
the winter in locating shore lines, where
the banks and leyees caved in, so that
they could be repaired and rebuilt,
Capt Hcckbridge is in command of the
boat and Charles E. Stewart is in charge
of the survey, and they started out on
April 26 to commence the survey above
New Boston. The engineering corps con
sists of five or six engineers and twice as
many rod men and ak meu.
The typographical map will be of the
utmost value to the government when
completed, as it will furnish a veritsble
cyclopedia of information in regard to the
Father of Waters, besides permanently
determining the channel of the river, fix
ing the exact boundary OF river states and
suggesting the points in its course where
a goodly portion of the river and harbor
appropriation can be used to the best ad,
vantage in improving the great central
artery of commerce.
Numerous disputes have arisen over
the rights of different states to tax
Islands in the river, as the channel con-
tinually varies, and an island which is
considered part of one state at one time
may be in another in the course of few
years. Islands are constantly increasing
in value, because of the growing demand
for agricultural purposes. Costly litiga-
ton has resulted from these contentious
over boundary lines, and with the channel
once definitely located this trouble will
have an end.
The Liquor Habit.