REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON APPORTIONMENT.

The Committee on Apportionment, on the part of the Senate, in compli ance with the resolution of the Senate, hereby submit the outlines of the plan of apportionment for the Senatorial Districts, as agreed upon in com

mittee:

Saint Louis, composing the 16th District, allowed four Senators. Every other District, allowed one each

All of which is respectfully submitted.

JACKSON, Chairman.

REPORT FOR REMOVAL OF DAMS, FROM SALT RIVER.

The Committee on Internal Improvements respectfully represent that the petition for the repeal of the law requiring the removal of the mill-dams from Salt River, and also a remonstrance on the same subject, have been maturely considered:

The remonstrance urges that the removal of said mill-dams is very ne cessary for the accommodation of a large number of persons who are com pelled to navigate that terrific stream.

The signers of the petition represent that there are great dangers in navigating said river, owing to the great strength and rapidity of the current, as well as to the numerous short bends, quick turns, shoals, bars, rocks, hanging trees, logs, snags, sawyers and breakers; so that few persons would have the temerity to risk their produce on its bosom. They inform us that it would be a herculean task to navigate against the tremendous current or torrent of that awful stream; and also that the shallows are such that for ten months in the year, a canoe or cat-fish cannot pass over the bars without grounding or foundering; that the character of the bed and banks is unsta ble and filled with fearful quicksands, and the rapid current tears down andsweeps off dams and machinery and renders the improvement of the river for the purposes of navigation utterly impracticable. The committee take it for granted that all the members of the General Assembly are well informed as to the perils and horrors that attend the ascent of that river; that from painful experience and recollection they can appreciate the toils of a voyage up its current; and that they are aware of the fact that the multitudes that annually navigate its waters, do so from necessity and compulsion

and not from choice.

The crowds that are struggling to obtain a location on the head waters of Salt River, have fled from the wrath of an incensed people; and the multitude who have been already rowed high up that stream and who still have some faint lingering hopes of being permitted to return at some future day, should constitute a strong argument in favor of active efforts to avoid the terrors and hazards of Salt River navigation. The improvement of Salt River is not a local measure, for the people of every part of the State and from all parts of the Union reluctantly navigate its roaring current. The vast population heretofore sent up the stream induces the belief that there is a very dense population in the country in which it has its source, and that they are in a very destitute and disconsolate situation and deserve the deep sympathy and compassion of the General Assembly. Many persons who for a long series of years had been wandering about in a state verging on starvation in that cold, bleak, dreary, comfortless region, did last fall take advantage of a tremendous freshet and came down on a rushing tide and were so fortunate as to escape from their place of exile; but on their furious passage down they narrowly escaped annihilation on the bars, shoals, rocks, bends, trees, snags, logs, sawyers and mill-dams, and other terrible obstruc tions that crowd its channel and add to the dangers of the precipitous voy age.

The last intelligence from the head of Salt River is that numberless

exiles who had been recently unwillingly forced into that region and there involuntarily detained, have trampled down the grass and herbage, destroyed all vegetation and shrubbery, and blighted every green thing so that want, poverty, starvation and pinching destitution press upon those who thus wander about as prisoners at large. It is a high and solemn duty to prepare an easy and safe mode for the descent and escape of these unfortunate exiles and to remove all mill dams and obstructions from the stream so that they may be saved from being tossed against the rocks, snags, and breakers and from the risk of disproving the old adage that, "those who are born to be hung will never be drowned."

The committee believe that a much larger number of persons are interested in the free navigation of Salt River than in that of any other stream. in Missouri, and therefore they recommend that the most effectual steps be taken to have all mill-dams and other obstructions speedily removed so that its dangers may be diminished.

In view of all these facts, your committee have prepared the following bill as a substitute to the bill referred, and recommend its passage:

INDEX.