Show let us make a t river to the there is is great waste baete of waters in in the 1 valley alley of the mississippi probably no where else on the face of the earth is is such a vast ast shed of arable soil alternately parched and flooded from want of an economic dis rib ution of its n moisture ois lure and no where else such immense immense motie metie and transit power left unused for want of gathering together the effluents that are scattered in a thousand rills nil it has long ion been demonstrable that the ohio by the construction of proper reservoirs servo irs near its source could be made navigable the year ear round for boats of the largest conage the constant decrease of that stream in in dep dept hand h and flow as its banks are cleared will probably necessitate such work orl at no distant day provided n river ers be not dot super seeded altogether as channels of commerce by more expeditious and direct resorts resort the same feature too that is is so strikingly mi maniTe sied in in the case of the ohio may be seen in in other n western estern streams in the mississippi itself the natural process re s has been reversed and culter cultivation a tion has a begun levering leve eing it from the mouth upwards instead of adjusting 11 it from the source downwards the result i is I 1 that the planters have hav e now got a body of water avater on the coast that in in times of confluent risings threatens to overwhelm everything with its volume v of the other great arteries of present spasmodic marine intercourse it is sufficient to say that only for a few short months do any of them afford safe and profitable ace access ess for frei freight 11 ht and that too whilst machinery and invention are taxed to the uttermost to lessen their perils and losses we have not however space to dwell upon a theme so fruitful fro taul in in su suggestion and so attractive attractive attract iv e in la the results Zai attainable as that of the economy of the waters of this continent what mat ave e aim aim at now is is to point out anew application in in this line for the enterprise of our people a SID single i ile striking brilliant brillia n t development that may add immensely to existing facilities of transit and assure us th the control of a new empire gleaming with treasure the trade of which every oily city of ally an magnitude is is now struggling to master the proposition we ave av would 0 uld advance is is to make a river to the mountains and to make it on the direct line of central k travel up to the very gold fields that are waiting to be rocked and cradled and rushed crushed into circulating wealth the kansas kaw is is a stream at present navigable to boats of liht light draught for a short shor t distance once or twice a year its sources e s however reach the high table land at the base of the mountains and ho iong arms the smoky hill and republican forks thread their way through an almost unbroken descending plain until they unite at fort riley those who will glance at a map of dult section of our country will notice I 1 that almost parallel with the smoky I 1 hill fork of this river runs for several hundred mils miles the upper arkansas arkana and that almost parallel with the republican fork of this river rn er runs for a like distance I 1 the south platte let us treat of these one at a time the divide die which separates the waters of the arkansas rl a ansas from om those of the kansas is is a mountain spur that soon subsides and is is lost in in the plain the distance across from one stream to the other as far down as bents fort is is not more than forty miles ind and the distance from the arkansas to the point where drai drainage into the smoky 1 hill 1111 fork begins is not mole moie than fifteen miles again the strip of table land that separates the south platte from the republican fork is is not more than thirty miles wide and from the former to the point of divide is is not more in in some places than eight miles now it Is evident that were the upper arkansas turned into the smoky j I 1 hill fork and the south platte turned into the republican fork and did both pour their mountain floods down the kansas ave w e should have there a river nv er second to but one on tha continent and navigable far up each branch for a large c class ia of steamers the arkan arkansas S a is 1 after fairly issuing issuing forth into the great plain a stream some soe four feet in in depth and three hundred ards in in width with a current so rapid that a man can scarcely stem its force the south pl blitte tie is is of about half of that size size and volume with an equal rapidity of flow the discharge of water from each is is imi rense and greater than ordinary of twice their apparent magnitude there could be no difficulty therefore on oil that score they would made de when eo combined in in the valley of the kansas another missouri the question then is is can it be done donea can those divides be perforated 2 can those currents that hat now are lost in their own sands be wedded antu new life and made a mother stream we believe it to bo be entirely practicable nay one of the easiest of great undertakings As we have said the divides are narrow of a light and easily worked formation and in in no part of any great elevation moreover the gradual slope of that whole expanse ot of table land would render this diversion of extreme feasibility thus the arkansas at the mouth of the Huer ferno falls at the rate of twenty fed fat a mile and the south platte opposite the sources of the republican fork thirty luo feel a mile it is is apparent then that a channel preserving a true level lev el and running diagonally from the arkansas to the smokey hill fork would overcome almost twenty feet feel a mile of the divide by the general slant lant of the plains and thus although the cutting might be deep at the start it would soon become insignificant it might lit even be so directed as to avoid all heavy cutti cutting ngat at the outset by adding a few miles to its length the distance to the divide being evv enty or even thirty miles in in a dia diagonal onal line would overcome 3 six ix hundred jed which we ave believe is is more than the height in in many places of the divide div ide above either of the river nv er levels nor need this channel so to speak be any elaborate work A small cutting g a few feet deep and sufficient to start a dram drain from one river to the other would be all sufficient the wear of the light hialit so soil ia and the cu cutting eting I 1 of the rapid carrent AV would soon do the rest and one of the greatest works of the moderns would be accomplished hed what we have said of the Ar arkansas arkanna kansa would apply with avith still greater force and facility to the south platte where the diversion of channel is is easy to bo be eflee ted the distance short and the divide simply a line of low sand hills shall we ave add that there is is an additional motive to this enterprise other and perhaps greater in in the present than even in in the demands of commerce both tho the arkansas and platte are gold bearing rivers rivers that hive h iva been washing down the glittering particles and depositing them a I 1 mid their sands for thousands 0 of f ye biars ars their bottoms are placers turn them aside and you lay bare to the energy of the multitudes who are already flocking I 1 in in that direction the richest diggings perc perchance bance the world has ever known As fir far down as the cr crossing auriferous in indications ae a e detected in the arkansas and why may we ave not presume the same of the platte almost a twin river born in in the same mountain range and leaping down its sides bearing the same met particles alon along with avith it to a race nee of men who have hae seen hundreds of millions in in gold ehmed from the valleys alleys of california it will bo be no marvel if untold treasure shall yet be gathered in in the dry beds of the arkansas and the platte and to that great nation which springing from a once feeble confederacy a fractional part of whose people projected and carried through the work of connecting the lakes and the ocean by a line of navigable water who shall say that it is is at this day and in in this manner impossible to make a river to 10 the mountains mounta insI missouri democrat at |