Tables of relative heights of high waters, levees, and ground, &c.—Continued. 1, 200 5.5 +1.5 + 3.0 900 - 3.0 + 3.0 + 3.5 730 - 6.0 -2.0 3.0 1,000 7,000 - 4.5 +1.5 - 7.0 + 3.0 500 - 6.5 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMISSION APPOINTED UNDER THE ACT OF CONGRESS APPROVED IN JUNE, 1874. FIRST DAY. NEWPORT, R. I., July 20, 1874. The following named met together at 10 a. m., viz: Maj. G. K. Warren, Maj. H. L. Abbot, and Capt. W. H. H. Benyaurd. The following dispatch was received from Messrs. Hébert and Sickels, the other commissioners: Cannot possibly reach Newport before Tuesday. Wait for us. II. Ex. 127-10 The following is a copy of the order under which the commission as sembled: General Orders No. 73.] WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, By direction of the President, Maj. G. K. Warren, Maj. H. L. Abbot, and Capt. W. H. H. Benyaurd, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, are hereby assigned, and Jackson E. Sickels and Paul Ö. Hébert appointed, to serve as a board of commissioners under the act approved June, 1874, "to provide for the appointment of a commission of engineers to investigate and report a permanent plan for the reclamation of the alluvial basin of the Mississippi River subject to inundation." Major Warren is designated as president of the board. Captain Benyaurd is designated as disbursing-officer for the appropriation provided by section 3 of the act. The board will assemble at Newport, R. I., on the 20th instant, or as soon thereafter as practicable, for the purpose of organizing and entering upon the performance of their duties. The following is the act of Congress above referred to: An act to provide for the appointment of a commission of engineers to investigate and report a permanent plan for the reclamation of the alluvial basin of the Missis sippi River subject to inundation. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President be, and is hereby, authorized and directed to assign three officers of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, and to appoint two civil engineers, eminent in their profession, and who are acquainted with the alluvial basin of the Mississippi River, to serve as a board of commissioners, the president of said board to be designated by the President of the United States. It shall be the duty of said commission to make a full report to the President of the best system for the permanent reclamation and redemption of said alluvial basin from inundation, which report the President shall transmit to Congress at its next session, with such recommendations as he shall think proper. SEC. 2. That the members of the commission who may be appointed from civil life shall receive compensation at the rate of five thousand dollars per annum. The com mission may employ a secretary, at a rate of compensation not exceeding two hundred dollars per month for the time he is employed; and the necessary traveling-expenses of the members of said commission not officers of the Army, and of the secretary, shall be paid, upon the approval of bills for the same, by the Secretary of War. SEC. 3. That the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary to carry into effect the foregoing provisions, is hereby appropriated, and shall be subject to disbursement by the Secretary of War, in accordance with the provisions of this act. Approved June, 1874. By order of the Secretary of War: THOMAS M. VINCENT, The members present occupied their time till 1 p. m. in general con sideration of the preliminaries to the subject, and adjourned to meet at 9 a. m. on the 21st instant. G. K. WARREN, President of Commission. SECOND DAY. TUESDAY, July 21. The commission met at 12 m.; all the members present. Various letters received by different members in regard to positions on the commission as commissioner, secretary, or engineer, &c., were presented and read, and an informal discussion of the cases were made. The following were the persons whose names were presented : Without deciding anything in these respects, the members of the commission proceeded to exchange views generally on the subject committed to them, and continued in session till 4 p. m., when they adjourned to meet the next day at 10 a. m. THIRD DAY. G. K. WARREN, President of Commission, WEDNESDAY, July 22. The members of the commission met at 10 a. m. Informal discussion of the subject, considered on the preceding day without acting definitely, was continued, but approached the subjectmatter of the work of the commission sufficiently near to outline the course of future proceedings. Adjourned at 31 p. m., to meet next day at 10 a. m. G. K. WARREN, Major of Engineers, President of Commission. FOURTH DAY. THURSDAY, July 23. The commission met at 10 a. m. An approximate estimate was made. of the expenses of the commission and the probable cost of securing necessary data, reserving a large sum for contingencies, as follows: Disposition of fund. Commission's report and business to conclude in January. Time July, August, September, October, November, December, and Januaryseven months. On motion it was Resolved, Not to proceed at present to the appointment of a secretary. On motion it was Resolved, That A. D. Banks, of Mississippi, be appointed clerk to the commission, at a salary of $200 a month. This was done, and he immediately entered upon his duties. General Abbot offered the following resolutions; which were read separately and adopted: Resolved, That, although this commission fully recognizes the advan tages sometimes to be derived from a judicious use of artificial reservoirs, in moderating the destructive floods of rivers, it considers this method of protection against overflow to be entirely inapplicable to the low lands of the Mississippi. Resolved, That no reduction in the height of the floods of the Missis sippi can be obtained by diverting any of its tributaries from their present channels. Resolved, That the commission considers that the local benefit above their sites, which results from cut-off's, is more than counterbalanced by the injury sure to result below, in an increased flood-level and caving of the banks; and that, therefore, as a measure of protection against floods, they are pernicious and unjustifiable, and should never be allowed upon the Mississippi. Whereas long-continued and accurate observations have established the fact that the Mississippi water, far from being charged to its maximum capacity with sedimentary matter, often carries a smaller percentage at high water than in its medium and low stages; and whereas all authentic records of actual soundings made above and below the sites of large crevasses justify the belief that no deposits have ever occurred in the channels below them in consequence of said crevasses: Resolved, That outlets of limited capacity, merely sufficient to reduce the flood-level a few feet, would be advantageous, provided a free channel to the Gulf could be found for water so abstracted from the river. Whereas actual measurements have shown that in the flood of 1851 water abstracted from the Mississippi River by crevasses, and subsequently returned through the Tensas bottom-lands and Black and Red Rivers, actually raised the high-water mark for the year at Red River Landing about 2 feet, without any corresponding increase in discharge over that previously noted: Resolved, That the expedient of withdrawing water from one part of the river, to be subsequently returned below, is sufficiently dangerous to be adopted unwittingly and only as a choice of evils. Resolved, That heretofore all cultivation of the Mississippi bottomlands owes its success to the construction of levees, and that this commission has confidence that the system, properly applied, is adequate to the protection of the country against floods. Whether it should be exclusively trusted, or be combined with outlets, is a matter to be decided by economical considerations. Resolved, That the president of the commission request the Chief of Engineers and the Chief Signal-Officer to forward to General Abbot, Willet's Point, New York Harbor, all data in their offices available for the discussion of the Mississippi flood of 1874, viz: copies of all gauge-records kept between December, 1873, and June, 1874, both inclusive; all precipitation-charts and rain-records kept in the Mississippi Valley during the same period; any notes collected by employés of the Government, or otherwise, respecting the condition of the different principal |