The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1894-07-15
Seaports of
the Northwest
Continued from Friday)

SpeClIlC CuSe OI ldleTu lIlluW am
deposit is the following; On the Hudson
river, not a great silt-bearing river, 4
secure &c foot channel at one place {
few hundred feet in length, in remov
ing S2,SO2 cubic yards place measure
ment, 129,129 scow measurement were
dredged. Seven months later, 6O,S6l
cubic yards had to be removed to restore
the Same depth.
In the Willamette, a river so near it'
minimum as to volume, width ant
depth, the plan by securing is mo-
promising because of the necessity ol
depositing the secured material some.
where in the places not artihcially con
tracted the secured material must be
placed in the slack water reach below
the contraction. But the Willamette
river has not the superlluous depth OF
width to make this process much differ
ent from merely moving the trouble q
little further on. At rivers mouth al
the sea, littoral currents, moving later
ally to the course Of the river current
remove the secured material in cases
OF successful deepening. Such currents
are obviously impossible in the river
itself At the mouth of the Mississippi
neary all tine United States engineers
contended most emphatically and con-
tinuously that the erosion from Col
Eads' jettes would simply move the bar
a hpp torl, 4 ba
existence of such lateral currents that
this was prevented. Yet the United
States engineers are allowing for nc
such deposit in q river without these
currents. Major Handbury refers to
this action in connection with the Will
lamette. "The high water velocities
that carry large quantities of heavy ma
terial are diminished where the bed OF
the river is wider and drop large por-
ton of this material" The very theory
of contraction and scour involve the con-
verse, widening and depositing The
secured material is much more than the
original bed Of the river; it included
the great amount of annual deposit,
and is a continuing evil. The amount
of such yearly deposit along a length
ened stretch of four miles would be
very great Major Handbury speaks
further regarding this tendency to de-
post, that below Swan Island, although
the velocity gained may induce scour
along an extent of 2700O feet below the
end Of the island, yet beyond that dis
tance Its force has become exhausted
by being spread out. The, tendency is
toward shoaling." At Postoffice bar. at
the contraction of willamette slough.
where the opening was reduced to $50
feet he says ''slnce it's construction the
water in the Willamette in its imme,
diate vicinity has been shoaling."
Any system Of contracting dikes. de,
signed to secure deep water in river
Tor ocean vessels, places obstacles in
the way of the great tows and the
small craft. 1t is a wretched diverting
of the inland waterways from their nat
ural function, for the benefit of one lo-
cality, and causes serious damage to
the people at large of the whole water
she'd We quote from Col. Craighill. He
speaks as follows regarding the deep
channel to Baltimore:
1.-The idea of such training walls has
been considered, but their presence
would be strenuously opposed by the
great number Of navigators in smaller
vessels, especially sailing craft and light
draught steamers, which need not go
in the deep channel, and have occasion
to be outside of it,
Besides this direct interference with
the boats, there is the danger to the
river from the great mass of logs Of
these temporary dikes, which will ulti,
mately become snags in the river, be,
cause (as the board of engineers states)
the dikes will last only few years.
The large section of dixie will contain
$4,000 logs of average twelve feet length,
for every 1000 feet of dixie. The large
piles of stone, after the dixie has become
partially destroyed and obscurely seen
will remain as dangerous obstacles for
all small craft
In this Columbia river Improvement.
we have ten miles of proposed deepen
ing to 25 feet depth. In all the work
of the United States government, we
IND no secured stretch of a tenth of
this length secured for even several
times the $77o,OO0 estimated by Major
Handbury. The enormous length of
deepening is almost without precedent
to such depth, in the worlds history,
If indeed it be not altogether so. At
Glasgow, with no great destructive river
hut only quiet water, a less length cost
$35, 100000. At scores OF places the gov
ernment has spent from one to five mil
lion dollars upon lengths of less than a
mile, in securing five or six feet addi-
tional depth, for total depths not ex-
oeeding IS feet.
In regard to uncertainty Of results,
owing to the complicated nature of an
Improvement of such a great river, the
following testimony from Col Craighill
is important:
In some respects the longitudinal
walls would be preferable to wing dams,
II 1t could be always known with GER
tainty where to put them. In most cases
it is impossible to decide this point with
absolute precision. If they are put in
water too deep, they become expensive
If placed too far from the channel to
be improved. their effect is insufficient
II placed too near. they are likely to be
undermined. Inasmuch as the river is
seldom the Sar,a c,-aa.,,,, g.. 49,. -.