The World's Navigation - The Problem Of River Mouths (1879) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NAVIGATION: THE WORLD'S NEED OF ITS IMPROVEMENT. "THE GATES OF THE RIVERS." THE PROBLEM OF THEIR OPENING CAN ONLY BE SOLVED BY THE USE OF IMPROVED IMPLEMENTS AND NATURAL FORCES EXISTING IN ALL WATERS. The work at the mouth of the Danube, it is at length known, is wholly inadequate to admit heavy shipping into that great river. And so at the mouth of the Mississippi. And so at the mouth of the Vistula, the Rhone, and many other important rivers where improvement with that purpose has been attempted. We might almost say all other rivers are barred at their mouths, unless cleared by frequent artificial aid, or by extraordinary natural conditions. This fact has not seemingly been fully realized by the general public, (if clearly stated) and even the faithful, extended and elaborate labors of engineers at river mouths, in Europe and America, have often, if not usually, seemed to deal with such questions as the mouth of the Mississippi as though it was anomalous and extraordinary, and only to be understood by peculiar illustrations. For example, one learned engineer argues, in an official report, that "the Grulf of Mexico is too large" for the Mississippi, and too large to admit ot keeping the mouth of the river open for heavy shipping. Another declares that "in order to understand the question it is necessary to realize that the river is leveling the continent, and carrying it down to the gulf." Do such extravagant statements indicate clear conceptions of nature, and of the work required of man ? Are they wise, or absurd? And great works (called permanent) are proposed, radi- 4 THE WORLD'S NAVIGATION. cal changes in the river planned, and various and more various, and more costly, become the theories and schemes brought forward, and urged with all the zeal of great...