Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/686

MISSISSIPPI RIVER. they afforded comparative safety to the grounds behind them, except in the highest floods, and as time went on the common interest of the Valley States dictated harmonious action all along both sides of the river. The development of the levee system brought about the enactment of such local laws as were best calculated to serve the public interest, and gradually the levees became recognized factors of public welfare and were jealously guarded. The most reckless and negligent planter was forced to keep his own levees in repair, and in places where private interest was not sufficiently strong to force the building of these earthworks, the town or the State assumed the burden. In 1828 the State of Louisiana began to take vigorous action for the more complete protection of its delta lands. In 1836 and 1838 several of the great side channels by which inundations had come were closed at the expense of the counties, and the question of the closing of all the overflow channels, so as to confine the stream to one bed in all stages of water, was the subject of much excited difference of opinion. The closure party prevailed, and one by one the side outlets of the Mississippi were cut off by levees, so that by 1844 every old bayou outlet for 600 miles up the west hank had been effectually closed. The results were even more satis fac tory than had been expected, so that the levee system was entered upon with increased spirit by the States bordering the river, and the aid of the General Government was invoked to unify the work. Congress, in 1850, ordered thorough topographical and hydrographic surveys of the whole of the lower Mississippi Valley under the direction of Capt. A. A. Humphreys and Lieut. H. L. Abbot, who began work immediately; but the report was not submitted until August, 1861. It recommended confining the river to a single channel and making the levees higher at all points, and estimated the cost of carrying out this recommendation at $17,000,000.

At the outbreak of the Civil War these levees were in better condition than ever before. Substantial levees had been constructed on the east side up to the northern line of the State of Mississippi, including one of great magnitude across the Yazoo Pass—the largest of all the outlets closed. On the west side the levees had been completed to the mouth of the Arkansas. Louisiana alone had expended up to that time $18,000,000 on the levees of the main river; $5,000,000 more on its great side outlets, the Atchafalaya, Plaquemine, and La Fourche; and $1,000,000 on the shore of the Red River. The State of Arkansas had spent $1,000,000; Mississippi, on her water-front of 444 miles, $14,500,000; and the State of Missouri, on her front of 140 miles, $1,640,000. The total expenditure by individuals, parishes, and States up to that time, on about 2000 miles of the river shore, is estimated by C G. Forshey, of New Orleans, at upward of $41,000,000. without counting the cost of maintenance. Before the four years' struggle began to draw to a close, however, the levees had fallen into decay. There were breaks here and there that destroyed the system, and the planters were too poor to hire the necessary labor to rebuild. Something had to be done to meet the difficulty, and that too before dire disaster had fallen upon the people living in the valley.

. A commission under this name was created by act of Congress of June 28, 1879, and consists of seven persons, three of whom are army officers selected from the Corps of Engineers, one from the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and two civil engineers and a lawyer from civil life. The commission was directed by the act to complete surveys of the entire river, from headwaters to mouth, and to take into consideration such plans and estimates as will correct, permanently locate, and deepen the channel and protect the river banks. The prevalent idea, therefore, that the work of the commission is confined to the lower river is erroneous. For the expenses of the surveys, examinations, and investigations conducted by the commission for the first ten years of its work, considerably over a million dollars were appropriated and expended. This is entirely independent of the appropriations made for the actual works of improvement, which were begun in 1881, and which have cost thus far, in round numbers, over $14,000,000. In the various appropriation bills for this purpose the commission has been restricted carefully in the scope of the work to the exact purposes defined in the creating act. In making the preliminary surveys ordered by Congress, the commission found it had to deal with a work of most extraordinary difficulties. The main portion of its labor was called on for the lower river; that is, from Cairo to the Gulf. The distance in a straight line is less than 600 miles, but by the windings and twistings of the river it is some 500 miles longer. Forever bringing down its own obstructions and dropping them in its own path, the river is forever attacking or running around those same obstructions, changing its course continually. The difficulty due to the enormous amount of detritus in the river may be realized when it is said that the amount of sediment brought down annually is estimated by C. C. Babb at 406,280,000 tons, and other geologists have made similar estimates. Straightening the river, as has been at various times popularly suggested, would, on account of the huge volume of water, turn it into an uncontrollable torrent. Dredging is not practicable, as the river frequently deposits as much as fifteen feet of silt in one place in the course of a single year, and as frequently removes it in the course of a single week or less. The quality of the soil itself also makes diking and revetting peculiarly difficult. The force of the tremendous current of the river directed against the foundation of any work that may he placed on its banks is likely at any time to remove that foundation. When the report of the commission was made in 1880 it was decided to combine the jetty and levee systems. There were few natural advantages to be utilized, and it was recognized that nothing could be done that could be declared absolutely permanent, and that the actual river bed could never be made to hold all the flood waters that were certain to come down. What has been attempted, and in some measure accomplished, is to take advantage of the river's own peculiarities, and by strengthening natural obstructions, here and there, rather than by removing obstacles, to persuade the stream, instead of forcing it, to follow a given route.

. The system will be given more in outline than detail, as the