The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-08

shut off from the river by high ridge.
1 would cut in this runway through
which the Mississippi could be turned
at will.
Back of this ridge I would build sew
] eral strong dams which would hold
| the water in pockets as it came in
/ These dams would rest one behind the
other, and the water would run over
/ into the second pocket as it Over1owed
1 the first, and so on. The complete set
/ of pockets would hold floods three
/ times as large as any that have ever
| devastated the valley.
| Let US suppose that we have adapt
| ed the swamp lands of the st. Francis
/ basin to this use We see flood COM
| ing. The river gauges hundreds of
miles above us on several tributaries
/ furnish the proof. The water at Cairo
/ is forty-one feet above low water
/ mark It is as much as we ought TO
admit TO the bed of the Mississippi
river. We open our safety valve in
/ the ridge at the head OF the St. Francis
! basin. All the water above forty-one
] feet will take the new route.
| The flood comes. It does not go down
/ the Mississippi valley at ali, but is di-
verged TO the st. Francis basin. The
/ first pocket fills with water, and the
/ second and third. By this time the
/ basin has swallowed up the flood We
/ hold the water we have caught until
1 the season of lower waters comes Then
/ we open the flood gates Of the pockets
and permit the water to run from the
! lower pockets into the Mississippi, to
make its way to the gulf when it can
/ do no harm
/ And about the deep waterway Once
rid OF the flood in the lower valley we
can speedily have the deep channel
{ as far up as Vicksburg at least The
river itself, left to traverse a beaten
path, viii cut out such a channel for
itself. At any rate the hydraulic
| dredges, whichsare revolutionizing riv-
! er dredging, will establish channel
/ that the river can always maintain.
/ Between Helena and Cairo L would
make still another use of the St Fran
/ els basin. I would put locks in the
dams which are to hold the water, and
/ 1 would keep in there a series of deep
! lakes which the deep draught vessels
/ which could not navigate the river
might use.
There would be 200 miles of these
! lakes, and / estimate their cost at S32,
600 for the dams and another $12,
100000 for the locks. This would not
I be more than the government has ex-
/ pended upon the lower river in the last
twenty years, and it would solve the
problem of deep water and protection
from floods for ali time.
I Summing up. we estimate the aggre-
gate. cost of this 1,600-mile and twenty
foot waterway at from $150,000,0 900 to
$500 100000. 1t is an enormous under
taking, but we are seeking enormous
results. There is a feeling all up and
down the valley that this waterway
| IS to come. The engineers are all of
this mind. and find the people along
| the river of similar opinion Consid-
ering the developments it would bring
TO the Mississippi valley, it would be
cheap at $500. 900. 600. The commerce
I of half the continent would pass
through this waterway. Nothing can
be more illustrative of what the YES
sells of the waterway might do than
I to say that the lake freighters are
carrying a ton of coal from Duluth To
Buffalo for less money than we can
shovel this same quantity Of coal from
a sidewalk into a cellar.
/ These plans of ours are necessarily
in advance Of any actual work beyond
/ the construction of the Chicago drain
age canal But we shall now speedily
get these things before congress, and
once the country is convinced that we
( have practical plans for the work the
money viii be forthcoming The gov
eminent has not had US working upon
thiss subject for nothing.