The Mississippi and Ohio Rivers: Containing Plans for the Protection of the Delta from Inundation; and Investigations of the Practicability and Cost of Improving the Navigation of the Ohio and Other Rivers by Means of Reservoirs, with an Appendix, on the Bars at the Mouths of the Mississippi

Front Cover
Lippincott, Grambo, and Company, 1853 - Flood control Mississippi River - 367 pages
 

Contents

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 227 - Erie, at an average elevation of 1,300 feet above the surface of the sea, and nearly 700 above the level of the lake. The plain along which this river flows is connected with no mountain range at its northern extremity, but continues its rise, with great uniformity, from the mouth of the Ohio to the brim of the basin which encloses Lake Erie. The sources of the tributary streams are generally diminutive ponds, distributed along the edge of the basin of Lake Erie, but far above its surface, and so...
Page 126 - River by that which is discharged by the Cocodrie and the Tensas. The floods of the Mississippi are produced by water which does not go into the swamps at all, but which descends through the main channel of the river; aided by the discharge received from the tributaries on the way. The height of the flood at any point depends on the volume that is brought down by the river and its tributaries, and not by the discharge from the swamps.
Page 126 - But, after the river 7ms attained its height, the supply is kept up, and the duration of the flood prolonged, by the subsequent discharge from the swamps. If, therefore, the levees be so raised at the mouth of the Arkansas, and the water so far excluded from the low grounds, as to produce an increase of the height of the...
Page 17 - ... is becoming more and more confined to the immediate channel of the river, and is, therefore, compelled to rise higher and flow faster, until, under the increased power of the current, it may have time to excavate a wider and deeper trench to give vent to the increased volume which it conveys. Thirdly, to cut-offs, natural and artificial, by which the distance traversed by the stream is shortened, its slope and velocity increased, and the water consequently brought down more rapidly upon the country...
Page 19 - Plaqueming, for the purpose of giving relief to that part of the coast which now suffers most from the floods, viz., to the borders of the Mississippi from above Baton Rouge to New Orleans. "Fifth: The enlargement of the channel of the Atchafalaya...
Page 23 - ... these flexures to less than one-half the inclination of the plane down which it flows. In the summer and autumn, when the river is low and water is scantily supplied by its tributaries, the surface of the Mississippi is depressed at the head of the delta about forty feet, and as we approach New...
Page 159 - Washita at the present mouth of Black River. Under this hypothesis, the increased volume below the confluence of these streams, in the course of thousands of years, may have produced the larger channel known as Red River, which even now is scarcely sufficient to accommodate their collected waters. According to this view, which is suggested as the most plausible explanation of the existence of the Atchafalaya, that stream was the ancient channel of the...
Page 356 - It is to be observed, however, that the whites, possessing the advantage of superior industry, order, and forethought, naturally increase faster than the other classes. In the United States, this part of the population increases at the rate of three per centum per annum.
Page 228 - ... down the steep slopes into that inland sea. From these remote sources a boat may start with sufficient water, within seven miles of Lake Erie, in sight sometimes of the sails which whiten the approach to the harbor of Buffalo, and float securely down the Connewango, or Cassadaga, to the Alleghany, down the Alleghany to the Ohio, and thence uninterruptedly to the Gulf of Mexico. In all this distance of 2,400 miles, the descent is so uniform and gentle — so little accelerated by rapids— that...
Page 24 - ... feet above the water. But when the autumnal rains set in, the river usually rises until the month of May, when it fills up its channel, overflows its banks, and spreads many miles over the low lands to the right and left of its trace. This leads to another important feature in the characteristics of this great stream. The Mississippi bears along at all times, but especially in the periods of flood, a vast amount of earthy matter suspended in its waters, which the current is able to carry forward...

Bibliographic information