river, upon which is situated all the landings, without reliable service during the season of low-water.

The river below the Cut-off to the mouth is as yet in good condition, requiring only the removal of logs and timber; ample water found from the Cut-off to the mouth. Owing to the unfavorable condition of the river at the commencement of the examination, no estimate of the volume of discharge could be made at a point above Montgomery, which was deemed essential to a determinate solution of the problem of maximum capacity of channel practicable. A measurement was made, however, below Montgomery, or as soon as the river was found in a favorable condition; these measurements were made when the river was reported to be about 1 foot above ordinary low water; they are submitted as approximate only. The first was taken at a point just below Newport Bar, and gives 3,711 cubic feet per second, with mean velocity of 2 feet per second; the second was taken at Wood's Upper Landing, 20 miles lower down, and gave 3,734 cubic feet per second, with mean velocity of 1.57 feet per second.

To determine inclination of river-surface at low water, use was made of data from railroad-survey levels, and measurements of surface-velocities of the river at various points.

The oscillation was determined from actual note of the high water marks from reliable sources, and all are made from the well-established high water of the spring of 1874.

The following statement is therefore submitted, with confidence that it approximates the truth:

Statement of tide-water elevations, oscillations, and estimate of volume of discharge at various points on the Alabama River.

From the above statement the average rate of inclination of the river from the Cutoff to Montgomery is 0.328 feet, or about 4 inches per mile; from Montgomery to Wetumpka, 0.469 feet, or 5 inches per mile.

At the most rapid part of the Tallapoosa Shoal the mean velocity was determined by measurement at 4.56 feet per second, or 3 miles per hour, which extended about one-quarter of a mile in distance at that rate. At no other point on the river was there found such an exceptional mean velocity; therefore, without burdening this report with more data for determining the exact capacity of the river, we may safely proceed to consider plans and estimates of cost, being fully satisfied that there will be abundant volume of water to carry out any scale of improvements contemplated or the requirements of probable commerce on the river may call for.

IMPROVEMENTS.

By map-measurement the total length of river examined is 322 miles, upon which were found 116 bars, shoals, and reefs that offered more or less impediment to free navigation at ordinary low-water stage of river. In prosecuting this examination there was soon developed a remarkable similarity in the character and nature of the obstructions, determining, in the mind of the observer, a common method for their remedy. In all cases where a bar or shoal was found there was an increased width of river, and where the shoal became elevated into an island and divided the channel

into two chutes, thus narrowing the river, one or both chutes would be found with deep water as far as the bar or island extended. At the head of the island, where the channel was yet wide, would be found the compact gravel-shoal, with shallow water; then, at the foot of the island or bar, where the river also was yet too wide, we would find the soft, shifting sand-deposit and shallow water.

The remedy in this case is evidently to confine and narrow the river, to extend the forming of the island by dam and jetty, and then narrow the channel.

Where the river has solid and secure banks, which is the case on the greater part of the river, either of one side or the other, then the channel should be thrown upon the side so secured; for it was invariably found that where the channel was so situated there was ample and deep water all along the bluff.

Some few cases were found where the channel had been thrown away from the solid bluff to the opposite side, and it rarely happens that the river has a bluff on each near enough to form channel-width. The proper course in this case would be to secure the channel against the solid bluff, even at a greater cost, from the certainty of making it secure against change in the future.

In but few cases were rocky reefs found, and these were mostly of the soft rock similar to that of the bluffs, and in detached masses. No reef of rock was found that seemed to offer any obstruction to uniform flow of the river.

In the lower part of river, below Gainstown, where the banks are of more unstable nature, the improvement of the river will require the use of means to secure the banks from washing, in order to maintain the integrity of the channel.

The entire river is much obstructed by snags and logs that are bedded in the main channel and chutes, the removal of which is, in many cases, all that is necessary at some of the bars and shoals. In other cases, the removal of the bedded logs and timber from the channel will allow the current to act on the sand, and thus deepen the channel all that is necessary.

The impossibility of any enumeration of the logs, snags, and timber necessary to be removed, renders any absolute estimate of this item impossible. All that is offered as an estimate is a statement of number of logs distributed among the points requiring improvement in a ratio that is judged fair and in keeping with the observed evidences of such obstructions in that portion of the river.

ESTIMATE Of cost.

In regard to plan of structures necessary in the proposed improvement, the details must necessarily be determined for each case by the engineer when the work is to be executed; but the use of crib-dams and jetties are here estimated for upon the upper portion of the river, to be filled with gravel and protected by coverings of heavy masses of stone, and at the exposed ends of jetties and exposed points along banks to use brush and stone protection.

For the lower river piling will be more suitable, using piling also for bank-protection, with brush and stone.

Timber of good quality can be obtained at all points on the river; also suitable stone for the purpose from the river-bluffs at all points from Wetumpka to Gainstown. The prices used in this estimate are as follows:

For the removal of logs and snags, $10 each.

For square timber of oak or pine, $20 per thousand, board-measure.
Gravel excavation and filling, each, 50 cents per cubic yard.

Soft rock or marl excavation, 75 cents per cubic yard.

Solid-rock excavation, $2 per cubic yard.

Brush and stone protection, $2.50 per cubic yard.

In submitting estimate of cost two grades of improvement are proposed: the first for a channel of 4 feet depth and 200 feet minimum width; the second of 6 feet depth and 150 feet minimum width.

The first plan contemplates such depth as may be easily secured, and at the same time the work may be made to lead in the direction of a more thorough improvement in the future.

The second plan contemplates a work of improvement that will at once secure an approximation to the full capacity of the river at low-water stage.

The 4-foot channel, it is believed, will serve the present requirements of the class of steamboats used on the river, and the execution of this work would be the first step toward a more perfect work, looking to the future development of the full capacity of river, when the increased commerce and growth of new interests shall require it. As river-improvements of this character are always in a measure experimental, there is every reason to believe that in a case like this the full result may be obtained in some places in the effort to secure only the partial; I therefore think it but the es ercise of proper prudence to recommend the application of meaus under the first grade of improvement.

302 Cypress Creek Bar