Excerpt from The Mississippi River: Its Hydraulics, Value, and Control Dear Sir: The improvement of the mouth of the Mississippi, proposed by me, consists in an artificial extension of the natural banks of one of the passes, from the point where they commence to widen and disappear in the Gulf to the crest of the bar, about five miles distant. This method is indicated as the only proper one by the following facts: The Mississippi is simply a transporter of solid matter to the sea. This consists chiefly of sand and alluvion, which is held in suspension by the mechanical effect of the current. A small portion, consisting of larger aggregations, such as gravel, boulders, small lumps of clay, and drift wood, is rolled forward along the bottom. By far the greatest portion is, however, transported in suspension. The amount of this matter, and the size and weight of the particles which the stream is enabled to hold up and carry forward, depend wholly upon the rapidity of the stream, modified, however, by its depth. The banks and bottom being chiefly sand and alluvion, are easily disintegrated by the movement of the water, hence the amount of load lost by any slacking of the current at one place will be quickly recovered in the first place below where the current is again increased. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.