Q. That one year with another, more water runs down the channel?  —­A.  We can see a slight increase of the water of the Mississippi River.  I do not know how it may increase in the future, or if it will at all, but that is the opinion of people there now.  The point I want to call your attention to specifically is the necessity for the prevention of the water of the Red River going down through the Atchafalaya, for if the Atchafalaya washes out it leaves New Orleans, a large commercial city, upon, as it were, an inland sea.  The waters which overflow from the banks of the Mississippi River on the front of Arkansas go over into the Red River and never come back into the Mississippi River any more until they come out at the mouth of the Red River.  Just at the mouth of Red River, and before Red River reaches the Mississippi, is the Atchafalaya.  So that all of this overflow water that could be kept in the Mississippi River by building the levees on the front of Arkansas, now goes into Red River and helps to wash out the Atchafalaya, which will ruin the city of New Orleans if that is not prevented.  It is a very strong commercial point, for the commerce of New Orleans is a matter to be considered in our affairs.

Q. I suppose there is no doubt that the Atchafalaya furnishes an outlet, which relieves your plantations very much?  —­A.  No, sir; it does not affect where I live at all.

Q. Below the Red River, in Louisiana, is it not a relief in case of an overflow?  —­A.  A partial relief; but in Louisiana, when you get down that far, they pretty much have their system of levees built, which protect the sugar district; there are only probably a few gaps; and the Mississippi River, when it gets that far down, does not rise in the same proportion that it does where I live, 500 miles above.  The mouth of the Atchafalaya is 500 miles below where I am.

Q. Has this increased drainage from the Atchafalaya resulted in any injury to the navigation of the river as far north?  —­A.  Not as yet; but if it is not stopped—­the commission realize the fact I am now telling you—­if it is not checked, the whole Mississippi River will naturally turn through the Atchafalaya, because the fall is so much greater.

     Q. How do they propose to check it? 
     —­A.  That is a matter the commission and scientific
     engineers would have to decide.

Q. Can they block it at the outlet of the Red River?  —­A.  They propose to check it principally by stopping the water from the Mississippi River that goes into the Red River.  There would in that way be an enormous quantity of water kept out of Red River.  That would be one method.  What the engineers would consider sufficient or necessary to be done, of course I would not venture to express an opinion upon.

Q. What danger is there to the large mass of capital invested in these alluvial lands,