| Show THE thu MOUTH OF THE THE tue overflowing of our oar lands landa in the vicinity of the jordan is an evil of gro growing w magnitude for the past two or three years the water has been steadily rising increasing the area of the sub merged lands various plans to remedy this evil evi I 1 have been suggested and i efforts have been made by constructing canals and building levees to drain the land and to keep the water to its legitimate channel but how sanguine the projectors of these schemes have been in relation to them this fact is patent to the public the land still lies underwater under water and all that has yet been expended has las failed in accomplishing the desired object probably the fault has laas not been BO so much in the plans which kave have been pro proposed posed and undertaken aa as in ili the want of or means to carry them out it ia Is an exceedingly difficult thing ko however wever if not impossible to carry out any amy system of drainage by ditches or canals that will not meet with opposition from landholders whose fields will lle the interfered with and every scheme ol 01 this kind has a local opposition to con tend with but there is one plan which has not yet been tried which we think is the best beet and only correct plan by which the evil can be remedied that esq is the employment of a dredge boat the open jg jog of the mouth of the jordan and the deepening of the channel by the use of sueh such sch seh a bor boyt would have the effect in our opinion to drain all the lands that are now submerged by the overflowing of f the water and make the river perfectly safe against floods it might amigh be expensive at first than some other ways which have been proposed but while they would only afford partial tellef relief its use would correct the evil entirely and therefore in the end it would be much the chea cheapest peat remedy that could be employed the lands landa c contiguous on to jordan would be so enhanced in value by the use of such a boat that their owners could afford to topsy pay for fox it themselves an engineer has written to the afia alia california san ban francisco upon the subject of deepening the water and raising the banks of the sacramento and fian joaquin rivers of california he s nis ais experience aa as an engineer in clearing ng out the channel of the river eiver hevern severn bristol england that river years ago became shoal from the immense deposits of mud carried into it daily by the tides from the british ti annel annei the water overflowed the land on each side to a great distance mad bad vessels drawing four feet of water wr would ground unless it was wag high spring tide tG rIssel A peto of london contracted to make the river navigable gabie gable at all alt stages of the tide they the y were allowed three years to do this but they employed three dredge boata boats and to h less t than hau han one year and a half the work was completed each boat lifted sixty nine tons of mud per hour with which levees were formed on both sides of f the river these levees were afterwards used ubea aa towing paths of course for the river jordan a boat of buch such a capacity would probably not ta 19 needed A smaller boat and of less power would doubtless answer every purpose but the principle upon which cu ahey ey operated is the one that should be yut put into application here if SaIt salt lake lako were as low as it was in former years then the dredging of the mouth of the jordan would remedy the difficulty which now exists even if the lowner of athe the waters of the lake itself did not drain the water out of jordan fast enough but as the lake is at present iwo babiy bably the fa f from rom the river to it is not jot sufficient were the mouth ever so well dredged to drain it properly by thoroughly opening the channel howyer yer and lifting lifting the mud from the bottom of the river and forming good hab eab levees on each side aide with it a dyen dyer could bo be kept within its banke bauke even with the presen present t high stage of water vater in the lake aa As this is a subject of general interest it is worthy by of consideration by ventilating ti it the minds of the people can be fa familiarized 1 with the various plans S suggested ul and the one beet beat suit sult bulted suited ed to the end to be gained be adopted it ift ia is very clear that should the present causes continue to operate some steps stepa will have to bo be taken ore ere long to cottrol these waters and keep them within bounds |
