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~ ~The New Steamer "Klondike."' tAbside elevation-plan of the new. steamer for the United States Coast and, Geodetic Survey, treasury department, is reproduced on this page. The limit of the appropriation for the building of this vessel, which is for service in 'Alaska, is $125,000. 'Bids will be opened Jan. 11, 1898. Plans and specifications with forms of proposal may now be had upon applica- tion to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, 'Washington, D. C Principal dimensions of the vessel are as follows: (Length over all, 196 feet 3. inches; length.between perpendiculars, 165 feet; breadth, moulded (to-outside of steel frames), 30 feet 8 inches; breadth, extreme (to outside of: wood planking), 31 feet 6 inches; depth of hold, from top of flat, keel- son plate to top of main deck beams amidships, 19 feet 5 inches; displace- ment.to mean draft of 11 feet 6 inches above bottom of wood keel amid- ships, 805 tons. Engines will be rights and lefts, placed in a common water-tight compartment, and will be of the vertical inverted cylinder, direct-acting, triple expansion type, each with a high pressure cylinder 12 inches, intermediate 18 inches, and low pressure 27 inches in diimeter, the stroke of all pistons being 27 inches. The collective indicated horse power of propelling engines will be 850 when making about 150 revolu- tions per minute, with a steam pressure of 160 pounds in the boilers. The attoq ms: a r--w----C--C MARIN REVI - Suggestions from the Captaitis"? ~ oo In a letter from 'Ogdensburg to Geo. L. (McCurdy of Chicago, Capt. Duncan Stalker of the steamer Pueblo says: "I noticed on our way down, that East 'Charity shoal, foot of Lake Ontario, 'has another victim, the. steamer Rosedale, and will likely claim more in another year if the place - is not properly marked. Last winter the Lake Carriers' Association, through Capt. Geo. P. McKay, asked the Ship Masters' Association to" suggest places for the location of gas buoys that were to be assigned to the lakes. Suggestions were made in writing, and East Charity shoal was marked as a very dangerous place, and one that should have a gas buoy. But the gas buoy was placed on Charity shoal, 1% miles further away from the channel now used by all deep draft boats." ; Capt. Stalker is correct in what he says about the suggestions of the ship masters and the advantages that would be derived from a buoy on East Charity shoal, but he did not understand that the buoy now on Charity shoal was secured by local interests on Lake Ontario before the ship masters recommended a buoy for the shoal to which he refers. pee following note from Commander Jewell, light-hotise inspector of the tenth district, would indicate, however, that East Charity shoal will prob- ably be marked by a buoy next season. Commander Jewell says: ele aa /< 1 ee 4 ee ee ete er aes renee BASEL MINE cea. NEW COAST AND GEODETIO SURVEY STEAMER FOR SERVICE IN ALASKA. tls "et ye ; high pressure cylinder of each engine will be forward and the low pressure cylinder aft. Main valves will be of the piston type for the high pressure cylinders, and the intermediate and low pressure cylinders will have slide valvés, all worked by Stephenson link motions with double bar links. There will be two horizontal return-fire tubular boilers, each with two corrugated furnaces. The mean outside diameter will be 11 feet 1 inch and the length about 11 feet. The total grate surface will be about 90 square 'feet and the total heating surface about 2,833 square feet. 's \Buffalo newspapers are showing up some enormous increases over contract prices in the work of improving the 'Erie canal, and it is now claimed. in some quarters that the cost of the canal improvement will probably aggregate $18,000,000, instead of $9,000,000, as originally planned. 'Hints of political jobbery are freely made in some of the state papers. - Qn-contracts covering only ten sections (there are sixty such contracts let) the-amount. paid for advertising is $22,379.48, and for inspection $27,710.98, although the estimate on the entire work (about 40 miles of the canal) was only -$1,517,703.65. 'An analysis of the total figures for these ten unfinished contracts,' says a dispatch from Albany, "shows that they have already. cost the state 38.65 per cent. more than the contract figures and 16.13.per cent. more than the final estimates, while they run 28.24 per cent. over the original estimates. 'On these ten contracts, the payments to inspectors. amount'to as much as 1.57 per cent. of the payments to the contractors, while the cost of advertising for bids is equal to 1.26 per cent. . of the amounts which the contractors have earned." _»i sThe Bessemer Steamship 'Co. received a telegram, Thursday, announc- ing the death of Capt. Wilbur Holdridge at Black Rock, IN. Y. He sailed the barge Alfred Krupp. On the last trip this season he caught a severe cold that resulted in death. Capt. Holdridge was known as one of the most successful men on the lakes in handling large steel barges. He had the distinction of sailing the first whaleback barge ever built, the 101. He took'the 101 when it was freely prophesied that she would go under in the first big storm. He was well thought of by his employers. - Travel the road whose service is great, ». The one that offers a holiday rate, _/Where trains are fast and "up-to-date;" You know, of course, the 'Nickel Plate. 404--Dec. 31 reply to your communication regarding the present location of the gas buoy on 'Charity shoal, Lake 'Ontario, and the proper marking of the shoal to the southward and eastward of 'Charity shoal, I beg to say that the gas buoy was placed on Charity shoal in accordance with an act of congress, and that the East Charity shoal is one of the places for which a gas buoy has been recommended, and, probably, will be authorized for the next season of navigation." Capt. James 'Parsons of the steamer Charles Hebard writes of buoys in Niagara river: "I would suggest placing another, black buoy,' he says, "below those now on the ranges at the head of the river, as there is an eddy in this vicinity and we find that we-often pick up the raniges too soon in coming up the river. I would also place two more red buoys at the head of strawberry island and a red buoy also off the upper ice reach at the head of Tonawanda island." Baltic=-Black Sea Canal. The London Times gives a very interesting account of thé canal, 1,080 miles long, between the Baltic and the 'Black Sea, which is to be begun next spring, as the surveys are nearly finished. The mew waterway is to be 217 feet wide at the top, and 117 feet at the bottom, with a depth of 28% feet, which will enable the largest war vessels to pass through. The canal begins at Riga, and follows the course of the river Duna as far as Dunaburg. Here the great excavations will begin which will cross the watershed and connect the canal with Lepel on the [Beresina. -That river will be utilized as far as its junction with the 'Dnieper, when the latter will be followed to its mouth. Of the total length of the canal 875 miles will be in canalized rivers, leaving only 125 miles to be dug. The canal is to be so strongly built that it will allow vessels to steam 6 knots an hour. At that speed, seeing that the canal is to be lighted throughout with elec- tricity, the whole journey will only take 144 hours, or say a week. The cost is put at $100,000,000, and the time four years, both of which estimates are sure to be exceeded. The enterprise is a very great one, and if carried out may have important political results. It was the completion of the Baltic and (North Sea canal that made Russia agree to the French alliance. A \Washington dispatch says that the river and harbor committee of the house of representatives has decided to hold no session until after the holidays, This is a further indication of the disposition to hold appro- priations down to low figures. i Nl