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eT ee MARINE REVIEW. f [January 11, twelve months, is the question of a proper method of maintaining the water levels on various lakes. The question is not a new one, but vari- ous recent events have served to bring it into great prominence, and it is now for the first time receiving the public attention which its im- portance deserves. On the 15th of July last President Firth of the as- sociation addressed a letter to one of thé marine papers of Cleveland, in which he called attention to the various engineering projects either actually undertaken or contemplated along the chain of great lakes, affect- ing the water levels, and pointed out that a very serious mistake was be- ing made in assuming that comparatively small reductions in the lake levels were of no practical importance. President Firth strongly advo- cated that the vessel interests which were particularly interested in main- taining and if possible increasing the lake levels, should advocate and obtain the appointment of an international commission of United States and Canadian engineers, whose duty it should be to investigate carefully the entire question, recommending to their respective governments a permanent policy to protect the interest of lake navigators, without needlessly restricting important private enterprises desiring to utilize for power or other purposes the waters of the geat lakes. The attention of President Firth was especially called to this question during the early part of his term of service as president of the association by the power canal project at the Sault. ‘Correspondence between the president of the Lake Carriers’ Association and the officers of the Sault Power Canal Co. removed to a large extent the apprehensions that the president had that the project of the canal company might materially affect the water levels in Lake Superior and the upper St. Mary’s river. Assurances were given by the power company that they were as much interested in main~ taining the present levels in Lake Superior as the vessels, and that their plans called for structures in the unnavigable part of the St. Mary’s river, which would compensate fully for the draft of water from Lake Su. perior through the power canal. A few weeks later it was reported in the public press that a company had been formed with suitable backing, to construct a canal from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, and this again raised the question of a possible lowering of the levels of Lake St. Clair and the Detroit river. t the present time the power projects of Nia- gara’ seem to have little to do with the maintenance of lake levels as the water is taken away from and returned to the river in unnavigable parts of the stream. The whole question of lake levels has, however, been again brought into prominence by the proposal of the United States Deep Waterways Commission to maintain the level of Lake Erie by the con- struction of a partial dam at or near the head of the Niagara river, the purpose of this dam being to secure the deepening of the various harbors on Lake Erie and also the deepening of the shallow channels near the mouth of the Detroit river. President Firth’s letter to the paper re‘erred to has called forth a large number of replies and has shown a general dis- position on the part of students of this question to approve his recom- mendation that the subject is of such importance that it should be taken up by an international commission. Able engineers, thoroughly ac- quainted with the whole problem of navigation on the lakes, have ap- proved Mr. Firth’s suggestion, the president recommends that the various articles approving this plan should be collected and published in pam- phlet form by the association for use in congress and in spreading gen- eral information from expert sources on this subject. The Lake Car- riers’ Association could, in our judgment, do no more useful work than to bring about a scientific consideration of this question and satisfac- tory solution. It is quite clear that the various departments of the gov- ernment are fully alive to its importance. At the request of the Lake Carriers’ Association the United States Weather Bureau has this year taken up the duty of carefully collecting the facts relating to the rain fall on the various lake basins, and it has pub- _ lished in tabular form the statistics of rain fall in connection with the various government records kept by the United States war department, of the monthly changes in the water levels of the various lakes. The tabulation of rain fall and water levels will be published with the annual report of the Lake Carriers’ Association, and should also be made part . of the proposed pamphlet on the subject of lake levels. The annual re- port of the chief of engineers of the United States army for 1899, clearly shows that that department is alive to the importance of that question, On page 635 of the report, the chief of engineers refers to the question as follows: “Of still more pressing importance for the time being is an ener-~ getic prosecution of the recently inaugurated work of investigating lake levels, the immediate practical purpose of which is to devise the best means of regulating these levels, and of preserving or increasing the navi- gable depth of natural and improved channels in the lakes and their con- necting waters. Operations under this project are now dependent upon small allotments from two pertinent appropriations, but, if any reasonable progress is to be realized, it is essential that means be provided for con- tinuing them on a much more extensive scale; the work is so intimately connected with the lake surveys, past and present, as to induce the sug- gestion that its further prosecution be in connection with appropriations for these surveys. It will be absolutely impossible to make anything like satisfactory progress in these investigations unless an expenditure of at least $100,000 be provided for during the year ending June 30, 1901. It is therefore recommended that the estimate for surveys for the year 1901 be made to include the amount specified in the foregoing paragraph, and that the appropriation be formulated as follows: “For survey of northern and northwestern lakes, including all ex- penses of correcting, extending, and issuing charts, and investigating lake levels, with a view to their regulation, to be available until expended, $150, 000.” ~The matter of this appropriation. will doubtless come before the committees of congress during the present session, and the time is there- fore opportune for the Lake Carriers’ Association to ask congres to makie the necessary provision for careful examination of this subject, and at the same time to pave the way for the appointment of the international commission, which can alone deal with the subject in a comprehensive manner. RE-IMBURSEMENT FOR PRIVATE LIGHTING. The president of the association, soon after his election, called upon the secretary and treasurer to furnish him with full information as to the disbursements of the association for private lighting for five years past, the information to show the amount of money that the association has paid out for the purpose, the lights which it has maintained, the necessity for the lights, and any re-imbursement that the association has received from the government, from marine insurance intersets or any one else. When this information had been collected the president sug- gested that in his opinion the association had paid out moneys for lights which it had been the duty of the government to provide, and that the association was fairly entitled to re-imbursement. The information was therefore put in proper form for presentation to the authorities at Wash- ington, and a bill has been introduced in the senate by Senator McMillan of Michigan under which the association can be re-imbursed for its ex- penditure since the season of 1894. The lights which the association has been paying for are of two classes; either they are lights which the association has maintained tem- porarily to light newly constructed channels, built by the United States government, until the light-house board could provide a permanent sys- tem for lighting the channels, or they are lights situated in Canada and used to light artificial channels built by our government for our ships, which can only be properly lighted from the Canadian side. It has been assumed that our government was powerless in any manner to provide lights on Canadian soil. Thus the Ballard’s reef lights at Ballard’s reef, which were maintained in 1896 at an expense of $1, 800, belong to the first of the two classes mentioned, and they have since been replaced by government gas buoys. To this class also belong the lights maintained this year in the Sault river, where the government has plans for lighting the various channels lighted by our lights, but it has not yet got the gov- -ernment lights into operation. To the second class belong the lights we have maintained for the whole of the six-year period since 1894 in the vicinity of the Lime Kiln crossing, where the channels are close to the Canadian shore and can only be properly lighted by lights on that shore. The senate bill introduced by Senator McMillan has been referred to the light-house board for report and has been in turn referred by the boaral to the various district officers of the light-house service on the lakes. Full information from the point of view of the Lake Carriers’ Associa- tion has been furnished to the district officers and to the light-house board itself. We are very glad to say that in this matter the position taken by the Lake Carriers’ Association has the hearty support of Senator Mc- Millan. In a letter dated January 6, 1900, addressed to the secretary of the association, Senator McMillan says: “In my opinion the Lake Carriers’ Association should be re-im- bursed for all the money which they have necessarily expended, the necessity being settled by the subsequent action of the government in replacing lights which the Lake Carriers’ Association has maintained. Also, it seems to me entirely proper that the Lake ‘Carriers’ Association should be re-imbursed for lights necessarily maintained in Canadian waters. In short, I agree entirely with your letter, and think the sug- gestion with regard to contract lights a valuable one. The principle which should govern, of course, is that of making the lake waterways as safe as human ingenuity can make them, in order to accommodate the enormous commerce passing through them. “T have referred your letter to the light- house board, and have noti- fied the board of my entire concurrenc in the views expressed by you.’ The reference to the contract system made by Senator McMillan in is letter is to a suggestion coming originally from one of the district light-house officers, that it does not follow by any means that because the light-house board was powerless to build lights in Canada, it was unable to light the channels built by our government for our ships near the Canadian shore; that while our government cannot acquire sites for lights in Canada and own its lights there, it was possible, incase congress mate provision therefor, that the light-house board could contract either with the Lake Carriers’ Association or individuals for maintaining the neces-’ sary lights on the Canadian shore to light channels constructed by the government. It certainly does not seem right that one department of the United States government should expend millions of dollars on a channel and leave it unlighted, and that another department should nor be able to find a way to spend a few thousand dollars in satisfactorily lighting this channel. Now that the problem is before the light-house board we may fairly expect that they will take it up with a determination to reach a satisfactory solution in some way. If it is part of that solution that the Lake Carriers’ Association is to be re-imbursed for the money it has paid out for these lights during the past five or six years, your board of managers will have rendered the association very useful service. BLOOKADES IN THE ST. MARY'S RIVER. The two blockades in the St. Mary’s river during the past season have called especial. attention to the difficulties under which the great ccmmerce of that river is now carried on. It is difficult even for our lake vessel owners to realize the rapidity of the growth of the traffic through the St. Mary’s river. In 1889 the total vessel tonnage passing through the river was 7,221,935 tons; in 1899 it was 22,000,000 tons. It is but a few years since night navigation in the river was begun, and while the opening of the Hay Lake channel and the improvements at the Encampment have greatly improved navigable conditions, it has been recognized from the start, even by those who had no idea that the growth of commerce would be so rapid, that the channels as they now exist must not be considered final, and that other extensive improvements will be necessary. It is estimated that the first blockade at the Encampment dur- ing the past season, although lasting only five days, involved a dead loss to those interested in the navigation of not less than a million dollars. It is even more difficult to estimate the loss of the shorter blockade near the end of the season. ‘While the number of vessels detained was not so great as in the case ofthe wreck of the Douglass Houghton, the fact that the blockade was so near the close of navigation, made even the short delay involve a loss of a trip to many vessels, The damage would have been very much greater if the weather conditions had been stich as to necessitate an early close of the Sault canal, or even the closing at the average date. It is appalling to think of the damage i in dollars and cents not to speak of the disturbance to the industry of the country, that might be caused by a serious and prolonged blockade of the St, Mary’s river, Z F * a a Shr