The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-03-08

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CONSTRUCTING REvETMENT ON THE MIS-
S1SSIPPI.
progress made in regulating the flow
Of the water and in improving the nav
igable channels always to be found in
the Mississippi.
This work is in the hands Of what Is
known as the Mississippi river COM
mission, which came into being as long
ago as 1879, and which has ever since
been trying to improve river conditions.
The present head of the commission is
Colonel Ames Stickney Of the engineer
corps of the United States army, who
was at one time chief executive Of the
Missouri river commission. The COM
missions offices are In this city and it
Is wholly under the control of the war
department. Already more than $43,-
100000 has been expended.
In brief, what the commission is try
ing to do is to regulate the flow Of the
great river, and the difficulty of doing
this will be realized when it Is stated
that there is difference at times Of as
much as fifty feet between the high
water and the low water level. When
the high water mark is reached, thou
sands of miles of land adjacent to the
river banks are flooded.
There are three leading theories
upon which 1t has been proposed to op-
crate in effecting the much desired re-
suit These theories are respectively
termed the levee and jetty system, the
outlet system and the reservoir system.
restrictive system, and it is the one
which the commission has decided will
give the best results. The difficulties
attending all three systems are very
great, however, chiefly owing to the
fact that it is the tendency of the
mighty river to follow the line of least
resistance. 1t is this tendency which
requires constant combating and, in
cidentally, the annual expenditure of
large sums of money.
What is especially discouraging is
the fact that the river continually
makes cut offs-that is to say, it breaks
through the narrow necks around
which it runs in winding curves. When
this occurs, the whole course of the
channel is changed, sometimes in a
single night, and circuit of many
miles is replaced by straight line of
a mile or so, great damage resulting to
the territory affected.
To prevent these cut offs the commits
sion supplements its revetments, ex-
tending far out into the river by huge
dams, and of recent years these revet-
ments and dams have been of great
service In preventing the much dread
ed cut offs. -~
The commission operates on the theo-
ry that If the water could all be forced
TO run. through strictly defined limits,
1t would carry off its own sediment by
the power of its own flow and would
thus "scour OUT a channel free of OBJ
structions. 1t was on the strength of
this idea mainly that Captain Eads
built his famous jetties below New Or
leans and certainly the jetties have
made a marked Improvement In that
harbor. But the theory itself failed in
demonstration, for the river, instead OF
flowing with increased force between
the restrictions, followed its old habit
and strayed off into other passes of the
delta. so that for number Of years
the channel between the jetties has
only been maintained by the constant
use of powerful dredging machines.
The Mississippi river commission has
aad the same experience. and it, too, has
had to keep mammoth dredges in oper-
alton With their aid, however, marked
improvement in conditions has been
the result.
The second great theory, the outlet
theory, is the exact opposite of the
above. 1t operates on the belief that
the proper thing to do is to withdraw
all barriers and let the surplus water
brought down by the spring floods pass
away as quickly as possible, the CON-
tention being that it is absolutely i'm,
possible to keep the river within.
bounds.
The third theory, the reservoir sys-.
tenn, has fewer advocates than either
of the others. 1t is essentially the Chi.
nese method of combining the surplus
water of food seasons in great natural
or artificial basins and Hberating it as
Ii Is needed In times of drought.
HENRY F. MII.l.EIs