The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-02-11
FAIEER OF WATERS
A Straight Channel from Cairo to tn
Gulf the Only Solution.

a Straight Channel from Cairo to the
Gulf the Only Solution.
1t is idle to presume, writes "a South
ern Engineer" in the current number of
Ihe Engineering Magazine, that a great
silt-bearing river flowing sluggishly
| through tortuous channel of its own
| making will ever be able to carry moro
than very small moiety of its load to the
sea In single continuous portage. 1t will
| drop portion on the bottom wherever its
flow. is retarded, and wherever it is
Hooded 1t must perforce carry another
portion over its banks for deposit on the
adjacent plains. If earth in sufficient
quantities is carted to its shores to pre-
vent its overflow, it will simply seize all
that 1t can undermine and wash out OF
TINS earth on the occasion OF its next flood
and make it contribute to the elevation of
its bed. This is the law established upon
every observed principle of geological
science, and we can no more prevent its
enforcement than we eau make the Mis-
sissppi flow up hill.
But what then? If the complete degra-
dalton OF the continent is to be the final
end, and il the land is to be eventually
placed awash with the sea, will we not
hasten the coming of the second deluge
by shortening the channels of great silt
bearing rivers and facilitating their work?
Possibly. But as Humboldt estimates
the time required to prepare all The con-
dltlons Tor the catastrophe at four and a
half million years even at the present
ratio OF waste, 1t becomes a question If
the continents will not live as long as they
are entitled to live in any case. Immor-
tallty enters into no theory of superficial.
terrestrial phenomena that has not yet
been advanced. And then, again, we
should have some confidence in the wis
dom of natural law. True, the theory
that continents are to be preserved by
seismic upheavals is not quite pleasant to
contemplate, and it seems moreover to
defeat itself by its own postulates.
The day must come when there will be
no more cooling at the interior of the
earth to produce contractions of the crust,
and then there can be no more upheavals.
But the earthquake is not the only al
Tentative. Nature must have contrived
something better. Equilibrium and
peace between the land and the sea must
be finally established. When there are
no more precipitous highlands, there will
be no more torrents and floods, and the
rain that falls will sink quietly into the
ground, only to gush forth again in per-
fectly pellucid springs and to flow back
to the ocean through the channels of
equally pellucid rivers. 1t will carry no
booty from the hilltops, because there
will be no hilltops to despoil. Man, too,
may have his resources. In a good deal
less than four and half million years he
should learn to distill bricks from the
elements, or, if necessary. in order to
keep his head above water, to build
mountains OF chemically produced gran
lite. But, whatever the situation four and
half millions years hence, it will not be
worth while TO make the Mississippi ba-
sin uninhabitable during the next few
centuries for the mere purpose of pro-
noting wretchedly unscientific system
OF engineering.
There is but one treatment for the Mis-
sissippi which will be at once scientific
aud sensible, and this will be found in
giving 1t channel as nearly straight as
possible from Cairo to the gulf. The
river itself will do most of the work as
soon as the needed cut-of1s have been
made; and once trained to follow direct
channel, running with nearly twice its
present velocity of current, it will call
for little subsequent expenditure. It-is a
wonder that the demands of navigation
alone have not already compelled this
kind of Improvement.