deposit, as it were, in the water, which makes the sand bars.  A mattress is put against the caving banks which prevents the alluvial land caving into the river which forms the sand bars below.  Then the increased volumn and increased velocity of the water wash out the channel, and improve it for commercial purposes, answering the object of protecting the land, and at the same time opening that immense channel for commerce.

Again, there are very important lines of railroad that are being built up and down either bank of the Mississippi River, and it is necessary they should be protected for commercial purposes, as well as that the Mississippi River should be improved for commercial purposes, and they can only be protected by the building of levees.  We who have been on the river, and who feel that we are familiar with it, have closely watched the course of the Commission, and I can only say, as an expression of the opinion of the people, that we indorse what the Commission are doing.

Q. And desire still more of it?  —­A.  Yes, sir; it is absolutely necessary.  What has already been expended by the Government would be absolutely useless unless additional appropriations are made to complete the work.  I would like to call your attention to this point.  The Atchafalaya, in Louisiana, is a stream which runs from just about the mouth of Red River into the Gulf of Mexico.  The fall from the mouth of the Atchafalaya and Red River to the Gulf of Mexico is very much greater than the fall from the mouth of Red River to the Gulf by way of New Orleans down the Mississippi River.  A few years ago the Atchafalaya was a stream which could be waded across, but owing to the current gradually going through it, it commenced to wash out until now it has got to be a stream 100 feet deep.

Q. Is there or not any perceptible increase or diminution of the column of the Mississippi itself as compared with 25, or 50, or 100 years ago?  —­A.  We think that our waters are higher now than they have ever been before.

Q. Greater extremes, or is there a uniform flow?  —­A.  A larger uniform flow, and it is attributed to the destruction of the forests, though that is mere theory.  One of the arguments, at any rate, is that it is owing to the destruction of the forests in the Northwest, which causes more rain storms and gives a larger rainfall.

Q. I have heard the idea advanced that the destruction of the woods and timber about the headwaters would, in case of rain, lead to a more rapid deposit in the stream, it would not be held back by the swampy nature of the soil, and so you might have more sudden rises and falls in the river than formerly without the volume of water or the uniform flow being increased or lessened?  —­A.  I think—­at least I have heard it so expressed by men experienced on the river—­that the flow of the Mississippi River is greater now than it was formerly.