The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1894-07-13
Seaports of
the Northwest
Continued from Yesterday
APPENDIX.

Portland. The residents Of the Column
bia basin are vitality interested in this
project, and some details are worthy of
attention. The disagreement between
Major Handbury and Col. Mendell, and
between Major Handbury and the board
of engineers, on the items Of durable
style Of construction and Of larger width
of channel, have been specified in a
general way. Major Handbury calls for
dredging channel only 15O feet wide.
In such dredging, the cuts at the two
sides Of the channel are made with YER
tical sides. with the expectation Of in
flow and some consequent lessening of
depth and width. This action continues
until the slope conforms to the natural
slope Of the river bed always very
long slope in soft material Col Craig
hill speaks of the necessary yearly ex-
pense at Baltimore as follows:
I'm excavation no effort has been
made to give with the dredge any spe-
Gifted slopes to the sides Of the dredged
channel. To require anything of that
kind would cause contractors to raise
their prices, even If the whole work
were contracted for at once. In this
case, the way has been to make the
sides of the excavation practically YER
tical. AS the side slopes slip in, the
dredge keeps the bottom clear until the
natural slope in the water is gradually
taken" Such inflow will make a SER
ious inroad in channel Of only 15O feet
original width, and will increase the
difficulties of navigation. To have rec
commended such narrow width. par
ticularly in the great Cathlamet bay
where Major Handbury himself says
sands are continually drifted about by
the waves" is the strongest evidence
of desire on Major Handbury's part
to commit the government to his pro-
ject by asking at first only for what is
merely an initial amount. the thinnest
lcssible edge of appropriation NhatI
could be devised for very broad ulti-
mate wedge of large expenditure. In
the great mass of river and harbor ap-
rropriatlons 1t is utterly impossible for
the board of engineers to know of their
own knowledge and from their own ex-
animation, what is desirable in each
case, especially for remote Oregon The
government is always at the mercy oil
the local engineer, whose social and
friendly relations with the prominent
men of the largest city Of his district |
will almost invariably, perhaps uncon-
sciously, and always without any dis
honest purpose, tend towards his CO.
inciding with their views. But in this |
case, and working only on common |
sense principles, without close knowl-
edge of the proposed work, the board |
has seen and negatived many evidently
undesirable recommendations Of Major
Handbury.
The Willamette river portion of the
proposed improvement is stated by Col.
Mendell with good reason, to be the
-.'most difficult part of the whole prob
lem" OF the total distance to be
deepened, namely ten miles, flour miles
are in the Willamette river" It is a
well known fact that the erosive power
Of rivers on the bottom of channels
is eXerted at low water stages. High /
water erosions take place laterally along
the banks and at distractions, and not
in the bottom, and the suspended ma
terial so obtained is deposited in the
channels during floods Ofajor Hand
bury refers to this action in the Will
lamette. "The high water velocities
carry large quantities of heavy mater
ial" A point of land 12 to Is feet above
water and 200 feet wide and which
seemed to be solid, during one night"
had sunk out of sight" when the river
was four feet above low water mark.
The only erosive power available for
the Willamette is its very small vol
ume at low water stage. This has al
ieady so nearly reached the limit of its
effectiveness of erosion for the channel
width requisite, that with only 100 feet
width ard only 10 feet depth, loss Of
a small part of the volume in the past
HAS HeulIdiiISu It's SCOuiiilB power. AN
indication of this is found in Major
Handbury's report. He says Of the at
tempted dams across Martins and
Burke's slough:
'Tt was estimated that about one
tenth (cnly) of the low water discharge
Of the river passed through these
sloughs, which fact was largely instru-
mental in the formation Of Martins Is
land bar"
In urging the closing Of the channel
south of Swan Island, he says:
What is spoken of as channel. is in
reality a high water chute, At a low
stage of the Willamette, there is not
more than one foot of water through a
narrow. tortuous channel" Yet this
slight amount of water is so much need
ed for securing the other channels that
he goes on to say:
1.-THE main ship channel is on the
north side of Swan Island. The flow of
water through this is barely sufficient
to maintain in it a depth required by
existing and contemplated navigation.
There is a bar through which it is
necessary (even with the present 20 foot
channeD to dredge cut each year after
high water in the Willamette in order
10 maintain a channel of 20 feet depth.
The inability of the present low water
volume TO keep 25 foot channel secured
o,t ta evident