AN AMBITIOUS SCHEME.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13068, 7 May 1913, Page 9

AN AMBITIOUS SCHEME.

A NEW RIVER.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 2. The placing on the map ot North America of a new river, faOO miles m length, and running through four States, ' is an ambitious scheme brought before Congress m, a Bill asking for 00,000 dollars for a survey and investigation of i the project. This artificial stream would take its rise m the Black Hills of South Dakota, and run through Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. When I the Panama Canal is finished there will be m existence, but unemployed, an organisation and equipment adequate to the accomplishment of suoh a gigantic work, and the -Government is to be asked to utilise the canal machinery m the digging/of this river-bed. Not only would the new river make fertile a vast territory now only tit for grazing purposes because of lack of water, but it would so' divert the ■ waters of v large number of western streams that , the inundations which, annually cause such damage along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers would no longer occur. At the source of the man-made river, m the Black Hills, a large quantity of water now going into the White, Cheyenne, and Powder rivers would be turned into it, thus preventing those three streams from carrying so much water into the Missouri as to cause floods at 'certain times of the year. The river will start at an altitude of 8000 feet, gradually lessening as the water goes southward. Thrpugh Nebraska and Kansas the fall of the country is towards the south and tast, but it will be the purpose of the promoters to keep the stream gaing southward rather than eastward, as the natural rivers m those districts run, by always keeping the bed of the stream at the highest possible altitude. Whenever a natural reservoir site is reached it will be utilised as a portion of the irrigation system to be developed. All creeks, ravines, and draws will be dammed, and the waters emptied into the new river, from which, m turn, water will be drawn off whereever it is needed. On its way southward the new river will have to cross both the Plattc and South Platte rivers, as well as small streams after the Kansas line is passed, by means of acquediicts high up m the air. When it reaches the Cimarron river, one « of the big Oklahoma streams, the water that i» yjfet flowing m its bed will be turned into the Cimarron, a.nd once agaie it isvill flow along a natural channel, leading eventually to tho Mississippi.