The Panama canal project, supposed to have been abandoned in hopeless financial ruin, has recently been revived, with new concessions extending the period for construction, and, it is currently reported, a scheme for a colossal lottery company for raising the means for prosecuting the work. It seems incredible that this canal shall become a fact in this generation; but if it is the feasible route its projectors claim, it is not improbable that the demands of a future generation may necessitate its construction. * * * * * A year ago I commented upon the improvement of the Mississippi river. Since then one of the greatest floods on record has visited the lower river country, devastating a large area. It brought to the settlers in the valley, however, a new experience, and has inspired them with a confidence in the levée system that finds expression in the demand for levées of approved construction from Cairo to the Gulf. The flood of a year ago covered many square miles. A large proportion of the area, {38} however, was not protected by levées, and another large proportion was only partially protected; and while, therefore, the disaster impressed the general public with a belief that the levées were a failure, the facts really point to the contrary. In former notable floods it has not been unusual for one hundred or more miles of levée to be washed away before the flood subsided, but on the recent occasion there was a total length of less than five miles destroyed in some 1,100 miles of levée that had been believed to be safe. This is a remarkable showing, and has naturally inspired the advocates of the system with greater confidence. It points to the possibility of constructing levées at a reasonable expense that will stand the pressure of water for the height that it has been computed necessary to build them. There is a grave doubt, however, in the minds of some as to whether the computed heights, the levées holding intact, will afford sufficient cross-section to carry off the volume of water draining from the catchment basins. Some interesting computations on this subject have recently been made by General Greely, the chief signal officer,[1] from observations made during an extended period. [Footnote 1: North American Review, May, 1890.]