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1867 was unprecedented. For thirty-two consecutive days (February 16 to March 19) the mean channel depth was 51.3 feet, the greatest depth being 55.8 feet on February 22, and 57.3 feet on March 14 and 15, and the least depth being 44.6 feet on March 2 and 3. The March rise was 0.6 foot below high water of 1865, and 1.3 foot below that of 1862. Immense local rains during flood of 1867.

Louisville, (618 miles below Pittsburg.)-The rise of February 22, 1867, was eight feet, and that of March 15, 2.8 feet below the high water of 1832. The March rise was a little below the high water of 1847. For five months snows and rains had been excessive, the downfall being estimated at three times the usual amount.

Wabash River.-In 1867 there was only one important rise, which occurred in February. At Eugene, Indiana, (three hundred and fifty miles above mouth,) by exact marks the high water of 1858 was the highest on record, being twenty-eight feet above low water. It was one foot above the high water of 1828 and 1844, four feet above that of 1851, and two feet above that of 1867. In latter years the river remained bank-full from the latter part of February until the middle of May; snows during winter and rains in March being excessive. In 1862 the high water occurred in February, and was very destructive. During the thirty-four years between 1833 and 1866 six crops have been lost from overflow. At Terre Haute the high water of 1867 was 1.3 foot below the high water of 1858, the highest on record, culminating on February 21 with river 25.3 feet above low water. The rise began on February 9. At Vincennes the river was out of its banks from February 19 to March 2, inclusive, being highest on February 22 and 23, when it was 0.5 foot higher than ever known before, (twenty-five feet above low water.) Snows and rains had prevailed during the winter.

Caseyville, Kentucky.-In 1867 the river began rising on February 1, and reached highest point on March 1, being then 0.5 foot above high water of 1832, and 4.1 feet above high water of 1847. The second rise culminated about March 16, and was 0.4 foot below the first, the fall between the two rises being about three feet; downfall during the winter was without precedent.

Cumberland River.-At Carthage the high water of 1867 was seven feet below that of 1826, four feet below 1847, and one foot below 1862; and was forty feet above low water. The rise began on February 25, culminated on March 9-12, subsided eight feet, but again swelled until March 25 or 26, when it finally fell. At Nashville the flood was 0.8 foot below the high water of 1847 on March 13. On Harpeth Shoals, thirty miles below, where extreme low water gives a depth of only thir teen inches, this flood stood sixty-four feet. The rise there began on February 28, the water standing nineteen feet. It culminated on March 13. After March 16, the river fell very rapidly, with no second swell. It was over banks (above about fifty-five on shoals) from March 8 to March 16, inclusive, indicating a flood of unusually long duration. At Eddyville the flood was 1.2 foot above high water of 1847 on March 18, the highest floods previously on record there.

Tennessee River. The flood of 1867 far exceeded all precedents for the past ninety years. It consisted of one great rise due to furious rain storms which covered its entire valley, particularly the mountain region. At Kingsport, on the Holston, rain fell nearly continuously from February 28 to March 7. At noon of March 7 the river attained its highest point, being thirty feet above low water and four feet above any other flood. In twenty hours it fell ten feet. At Strawberry Plains the freshet rose fifty-two feet above low water, and eleven feet above any other flood.

At Knoxville the river rose twelve feet above high-water mark of 1847, and was over fifty feet deep. Near Harrison, the Tennessee rose fifteen feet above any known water mark. At Chattanooga the rise began on March 4, overflowed banks on March 8, and attained height on March 11, being fifty-three feet above low water and 15.5 feet above the high water of 1847, the highest on record. The river fell with equal rapidity to usual level. Rains were incessant for four days before highest water. At Bridgeport, Alabama, the flood reached its maximum, 11.5 feet above all former marks, late on March 12. At Bellefonte, Alabama, rise began on March 5, and was highest on March 13, when it was 9.1 feet above high water of 1847. At Decatur, the freshet culminated on March 16, being six or seven feet above any other flood; it remained stationary for two days. At Florence, Alabama, the freshet began on March 1, culminated on March 15, falling very slowly for three days. It stood six feet above all other floods. At Eastport it stood seven feet above any known flood. At Johnsonville the flood culminated on March 22, being 3.8 feet above all previous water marks, and 44.8 feet above ordinary low water; by April 1, it had returned within banks. At Paducah the rise culminated on March 21. The destruction of property and life occasioned by this flood was beyond parallel in the history of the Tennessee Valley. Metropolis, (40 miles above Cairo.)—The February rise of 1867 was 1.5 foot below high water of 1847. The river remained nearly stationary until March 8, when it began to swell; it culminated on March 20 at a point above all previous water marks, being three feet above high water of 1865, and 4.4 above that of 1847. The fall was rapid.

Mound City, (6 miles above Cairo.)-The flood of 1867 rose 0.9 foot above high water of 1862.

UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

Fort Ripley.-No rain fell between November 26, 1866, and April 13, 1867; no spring rise in 1867.

Winona.-There were not twelve hours of rain between January 6 and April 13, 1867; no early spring rise, the river being frozen in March. The highest points reached between October 4, 1866, and April 22, 1867, were on December 24, when the river was 6.6 feet above low water, and on April 22, 1867, when it was 9.4 above low water and rising. The total range here is about 14 feet.

ILLINOIS RIVER.

At La Salle, eighteen inches of rain fell between February 5 and June 3, 1867. A freshet, rising within one foot of top of levees, culminated on February 17, 1867, being twenty-six feet above the low stand of February 3; the river remained high, but oscillating, until June 3, (date of letter,) the lowest point being about seven feet above low water on May 19.

MISSOURI RIVER.

Fort Randall. The river remained frozen until April 9, 1867, being at low-water mark, or about five feet deep. It began rising on April 12, and on April 17-19 it was bank full, but it fell at once to usual summer level. (The freshet did no damage.) No local rains fell for the five months ending April 16.

Niobrara.-In March, 1867, about 2.5 feet of snow fell, and on April 17 about three inches of rain. On April 1 the river was at usual sum

mer level, but a sudden and excessive (ten feet) freshet in the Niobrara raised it rapidly. Combined with the rise above, this freshet raised the Missouri on April 18 to a point 1.5 foot below the high water of 1858, and two feet below the high water of 1866, the highest recorded flood. Omaha.-Ice broke up on April 7, 1867, the river being very low. The melting snows caused it to rise rapidly until, on April 23, it stood 18.8 feet above extreme low-water mark, (1863.) It was 1.9 foot above high water of 1866, and 0.1 foot above that of 1844. By April 30 it had receded within banks, a fall of about seven feet. The levees were completely overflowed.

South Platte River.-At Fort Sedgwick much snow fell in March, 1867. The mean temperature was very cold; and the river there, about half a mile mide and two feet deep at low water, was frozen solid. The ice broke up on April 8 with a little freshet. St. Joseph.-The ice broke up on February 13, 1867, causing a little rise of five feet, due to melting snow and ice gorges. The highest stand in February or March was twelve feet within banks.

Leavenworth. The Missouri was very low during March, 1867. Quite a freshet occurred between April 10 and May 9, the river being at these dates 5.5 feet above low-water mark. At its height, on April 27 and 28, it stood 18.6 feet above low water, and 0.7 foot above the mark of April, 1866. No damage was done by freshets locally.

ARKANSAS RIVER.

Fort Smith. The high water of June, 1866, was 3.8 feet above that of 1862, and two feet above that of 1867.

Little Rock.-There were heavy rains and snows in March, 1867, which, however, flooded the White, Little Red, Washita, and Sabine Rivers, heading near the Arkansas, more than they did that river itself. Before the storms occurred the latter river was about three feet above low water; in two days after the rains began the river commenced to rise so rapidly that in about three days it rose twenty-five feet, to its highest point, which was six feet below high water of 1833, and 1.1 foot below that of August, 1866. The river rapidly subsided, doing little damage above the influence of back-water from the Mississippi.

Pine Bluffs.-In 1867 the river did not reach the top of its banks by some feet. The flood of 1833 is the greatest recorded. Next to it is that of 1844, which was occasioned by a general freshet in all the tributaries. The river began rising late in March; on May 8 and May 20 it reached the mark of 1833; about July 1 it retired within banks; on August 10 it attained low-water level. The construction of levees on the lower Arkansas, since 1844, has affected the relative heights of later floods. Heckatoo Plantation, (15 miles above South Bend.)-In 1862 there was no great flood in the Arkansas river itself. In 1867 the waters rose 0.3 foot above high water of 1866, which reached a higher point than any other flood since 1844. There were several crevasses near and below this plantation in 1867.

South Bend.-The date of highest water in 1867 was June 7. About four miles of gaps in Arkansas River levees in vicinity. A moderate flood in Arkansas River at date of high water in 1862.

RED RIVER.

Cut-off Landing, (nearly west of Lewisville, Arkansas.)-There was an overflow in May and June, 1867, damaging about three-fourths of crops.

The highest water was about 0.3 foot above high water in June, 1865, and April, 1866.

Shreveport to Alexandria.-On June 22, 1867, the river was falling fast. The flood had caused very considerable damage in this region.

APPENDIX N.

U. S. ENGINEER OFFICE, OHIO RIVER IMPROVEMENT,

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, August 5, 1869.

GENERAL: In obedience to instructions contained in circular of the Engineer Department, dated June 12, 1869, I respectfully present the following annual report upon the surveys and works temporarily under your charge for the improvement of the Ohio River, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869:

SURVEYS.

At the date of the last annual report, (September 15, 1868,) no reports had been received from the engineering parties under Sigismund Löw, assistant United States civil engineer, and George Barrett, assistant United States civil engineer, engaged upon the surveys of those portions of the river below Louisville left from 1867. The upper party, under Mr. Barrett, resumed the survey in the latter part of July, 1867, where it had been suspended by Mr. James E. Day, in the fall of 1867, at Cloverport, Kentucky, 705 miles below Pittsburg, and 108 miles below Louisville. Mr. Barrett's party reached Evansville, 783 miles from Pittsburg, September 23, 1868. From Evansville, Mr. Barrett was ordered to pass over Mr. Löw's district, and resume his survey at Hillerman, 939 miles below Pittsburg. By the 21st of October, the shore line was completed to Cairo, mouth of the Ohio River, 967 miles below Pittsburg. Mr. Barrett remained with a reduced party to take soundings at the Grand Chain, which he had been prevented from doing on account of the high stage of water. The operations of his party in the field were closed November 7, 1868. The entire distance surveyed by Mr. Barrett was 106 miles. Owing to the high water, the party was unable to take soundings between French Island and Evansville, a distance of 23 miles. The season was also unfavorable throughout for arriving at the correct low-water fall at the several ripples, their level line showing for long distances only the average slope of the river. The party under Mr. Löw began their field work July 28, 1868, where they had quit in 1867, at Slim Island, 42.4 miles below Evansville. The party reached Hillerman, where Mr. Barrett had resumed, October 8. The whole distance surveyed by Mr. Löw's party in 1868 was 114.4 miles. Mr. Löw's party experienced much sickness during August and September, particularly in the region of the mouth of the Wabash River; at one time eleven out of seventeen were laid up with the fever and ague. Both in Mr. Löw's and Mr. Barrett's parties the sickness caused considerable detention, the assistants being unable to work up their maps until some time after their return to Pittsburg. Mr. Löw was prevented by the high water from taking soundings between Smithland, mouth of the Cumberland River, and Hillerman, a distance of 31 miles.

The surveys of the Ohio River were begun under Captain, afterwards Major John Sanders, United States Corps of Engineers, in 1836, and continued by him through 1837 and 1838. Resumed in 1844 by Mr. Fuller, of the Engineer Bureau, who surveyed 37 miles; making 271 miles completed at the close of 1844. The surveys were again resumed by Mr.

Roberts in 1867, and completed, with the exception of some soundings as mentioned above, November 7, 1868.

During the year the engineering party under my charge, with Captain George W. Rowley, consulting pilot of the engineer steamer Tidioute, in addition to their duties of superintending the construction of riprap dams, dredging, &c., made a number of special surveys and reports. In August, 1868, the Tidioute went as far down as Louisville, having all the charts along, and many places which had been omitted on account of high water were sounded over thoroughly. Accurate surveys of Wheeling and Marietta Island were made in the fall of 1868, by this party, and during this season a survey of Grandview Shoals and Sheet's Ripple was made; all points where work is at present in progress. One of the immediate results of the survey of the Ohio was a correction of the distances along the river. Heretofore various and conflicting estimates were employed by the pilots, giving rise to considerable trouble and confusion. A table of distances was furnished for publication to the papers in Pittsburg and Cincinnati, so that now it is presumed all river-men are furnished with a reliable table. The office work upon the maps was so much delayed by sickness and absence of the assistants who made the surveys, that it was not until recently that the draughtsmen in the office completed the details upon them. There are 118 charts, beginning at Pittsburg, 32 of them surveyed by Captain Sanders and Mr. Fuller, embracing a distance of 271 miles. The entire length of the river being 967 miles from Pittsburg to Cairo, these charts represent, on an average, each eight and one-fifth miles of the river, drawn to a scale of 1,000 feet to the inch.

The department has authorized further local surveys, principally soundings and leveling, to be done, to fill out the maps and profiles prior to a thorough report upon the surveys being made.

WORK ON THE RIVER RIPRAP DAMS AND DREDGING.

In the last annual report was presented a table exhibiting the amounts paid up to June, 1868, at nine points, being the first points advertised for improvement at the commencement of our operations. The following table exhibits the quantity of work done at such of those points which were not finished, and the amount of work done on supplementary contracts, from June, 1868, to July, 1869.

Table exhibiting the amount expended on works along the Ohio River from June, 1868, to July 1869, inclusive.

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