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mer, to be used, if need be, for pur- Such in any event eventually reach its nat- poses of irrigation. water will ural channel because it will be given out by the land through seepage when it is most needed, that is to say dur- ing the hot months. Rivers which traverse forest countries bear a nor- supply of the round. The forests are the great con- A barren land such as mal water all year servators of moisture. will transfer moisture rain immediately to the rivers, but the for- est will check it drop by drop, trans- fer it to springs and gradually let it find its outlet in the rivers. Senator Newlands argues that the conserving of a stream to navigable uses involves the question of forestry. He is in favor of planting trees for that very purpose. His argument is, in every way, a big one and will un- doubtedly cause the development of our waterways to be approached from a new direction. GRAIN MEN GRUMBLING. Buffalo, Jian. 14--There is a grum- bling complaint from the grain inter- ests of the steel winter-storage fleet because there is considerable leaking here and there and spoiling tthe grain, sometimes enough to make it neces- sary to unload a cargo. The grum- ble is the more uncompromising on account of the claim that the tnouble iS a mere matter of carelessness on the part of the owner of 'tthe vessel. A steel steamer makes a fine floating grain bin if it is properly taken care of, but tthe grain men say that the ore and coal traffic through the season do not mind a small leak here and there, so the owner gets into the habit of letting them go and when he comes to take in a grain cargo in order to get business for his fleet through the winter he takes his chances of their behaving 'all right in that traffic also. The insurance also grumbles of course, but that is an interest that has not always been strong enough to act up tio its convictions and so it pays up and tthe difficulty is not cor- rected. Vessel men appear to agree that the leaks are largely in the bot- tom and come from rivets having been loosened by either the chuting in of the ore or from the contact of the clam shell hoisting apparatus, either of which must strike the bottom of a vessel with a sharp impact. One ves- sel man remarks that the bottom of a steel steamer's hold is of course TAE Marine REVIEW. Over a water tank and there ought not to be much water to come in con- tact with the gnain unless the tank is well filled with water or is shaken about a good deal. The ship build- ers disclaim any close knowledge of the difficulty. They turn everything out watertight, they say, though it has always been a fact, of course, that a steel plate is not a sure water guard, however well calked, till it is proven to ibe, so that to. carry grain in a new steel bottom is always risky. These complaints are not made as a matter of serious concern, but to keep people from being careless about less- er things. It appears to be a fact that there is less serious apprehension as to the future of tthe steel lake vessel than there was a dozen years ago, or possibly at any time since steel be- gan to take the place of wood in ship building. The thing to do, then, is to pick up a few of the minor and more easily corrected faults and go ahead. It is true, for all that, that the insurance interests see a great diffi- culty yet in the matter of strandings. The ship yards may not do any grum- bling in that line, so long as the insurance pays the loss and they get ithe repairs to do, but it is a serious matter. As to what the insurance is going to do about the strandings, or indeed about anything for the next season everything is at sea yet. One of the underwriters said the other day that he could not give any outline yet of the policy of next season. Somehow the vessel interests seem ito be more independent of the underwriters than they used to be, so that there is not much dictating to them, either as to construction plans or hull rates. If one set of underwriters will not take the risks another will and if there is any serious difference the owner of the fleet can carry it all himself some- times. While 'the total losses on the lakes were lighter than in 1906, so that the really valuable carriers are not reduced in number and the fleet goes on in- creasing by great bounds the collisions were numerous enough to 'cause much uneasiness on the part of the insur- ance at least and when added to the losses by stranding the total is some- times very lange. ' . Of course, the chief cause for con- cern now is the size of the fleet, as compared with the business 'n pros- pect... It ws net easy to und "teslake man now who believes that the fleet can be kept busy next season, even if the demand for ore returns in time to make sure of something like the usual ~Rennick, H. A. McKinnon, 21 increase to be moved. At present it is hard to see how there is to be any increase at all and a sharp falling off may take place. If there does what will ithe fleet have to do? Still some of the bus:ness men are expressing great faith in the return of activity before long. A local head of a com- mercial agency assured a business man last week that by July he would be as far behind his orders as he was last July. The business man could only say he hoped so. Something must be done before long to get into line for the new barge canal, which is expected to add mate- tially to the size and importance of the lake business. While it will stitl be several years in construction there are many problems that must be solved in some way before the route to the sea will float the larger craft, which is now said 'to be more likely to carny 2,000 tons than less, while the party that advocates a draft of 14 ft. is more nearly in authority than the original canal men like to see. Will it be possible, as some think, to build a craft that is small enough: for canal traffic and yet large enough to go up the lakes and to Boston and Norfolk on the coast and make enough money to beat out the boats at must transfer cargo here and in or near New York? Who can tell? Joun W. CHAMBERLIN, The annual ball of the Cleveland lodge of the Ship Masters' Association wil be held at the Chamber of Com- merce hall on Friday evening, Jan. 24. The American Ship Building Co. is trans- forming the steel barges Polynesia and Amazon of the Corrigan-McKinney fleet - into steamers. For this purpose the en- gines will be taken out of the Caledonia and Italia of the same fleet and installed in the barges. New boilers will be pro- vided, 12 ft. in diameter and 12 ft. long, equipped with Ellis & Eaves draft. At ithe annual meeting of the Ashia- bula Steamship Co. held in Ashtabula last Monday the following officers were elected: E. S. Henry, president; George A. Gaston, vice-president; E. W. Savage secretary and 'treasurer. These officers together with T. J. 'Capt. Oscar Olson and Alexander Hynd comprise the boand of directors. The new steamer building for this com- pany by the Great Lakes Engineering Works will probably be launched Feb. 15 and will be commanded by Capt. Oscar Olson.