REMOVAL OF SANDBARS.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 966, 1 December 1882, Page 2

REMOVAL OF SANDBARS.

A simple plan of removing sandbars if it be feasible, is thus described in the Portland Oregonian :—“ It is believed a plan has been hit upon which will force a good ship channel—viz., stirring the deposit with a steamship’s propeller and allowing the current to carry it away while it is floating. The bar (St Helen’s Bar, Columbia River) is formed of compact clean sand. A sample was brought up yesterday, and an experiment was tried. A teaspoonful was thrown into a tumbler of water, and the liquid stirred slowly. The sand rose to the surface, and a portion remained floating after the water had become still. Mr C. H. Prescott, manager of the Oregon River and Navigation Company, has tendered the nse of the collier Walla Walla, which arrived’ yesterday. It is proposed to anchor the steamer bow up stream, the stern at the lower edge of the bar and loaded, so that her keel will, be on the bottom. Then the process of stirring the sand will begin. So soon as 100 feet in width is obtained the steamer will advance half a length, and repeat the operation until the head of the bar is reached. Then she will be backed through the channel. In the dragging done by the Ocklahama no signs of logs were discovered. The bar is about 1000 feet long, and the channel proposed to be cut will be with the current, instead of at an angle, as heretofore obtained by dredging. The velocity of the current during flood tide is about two miles, and during ebb tide about three miles per hour, and this is believed to be strong enough to carry away the sand as fast as it rises from the bottom.”