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THE MARINE RECORD. 7 ‘agon to June 30, 1895, has been $326,720, which secured a _good navigable 12-foot channel, which has remained in fairly good shape. A small sum was expended last year in maintaining the channel. The amount appropriated by this Congress ($10,000) will be withheld until the freshets subside sufficiently to show where it can be ex- pended most effectively. The commerce of this port is estimated at $1,000,000. The amount expended on the Portage Lake ship canal up to June 30, 1895, was $183,412. The channel has been deepened during the past year to give a good 15 feet at low water, and several minor improvements made. The channel has also been widened to 70 feet. During the season of 1895 the commerce through this waterway amounted to 1,731 vessels, 957,000 registered tonnage, and 822,000 net freight tonnage, valued at $29,832,000, “not including local tug business, estimated at $290,770. The amount expended on Marquette harbor to June 30, 1895, was $478,413, and 470 feet of breakwater has been constructed. The results have been the complete protection of ore, coal, lumber and commercial docks. The results due to the expenditure during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1896, have been to make permanent 470 feet of breakwater, which affords this protection, thus dispensing with renewals every fifteen or twenty years. In twenty years the commerce of this port has amounted to at least $70,000,000. LAKE ERIE IMPROVEMENTS. The annual report of Col. Jared A. Smith, which had lately been filed with the Chief of Engineers, covers the river and harbor work from Mon- roe, Mich., to Conneaut, O., in- clusive. In regard to the first- mentioned port he reports the ex- penditure during the past fiscal year of $4,536.75, used in repairs to piers and to complete dredging. In view of the fact that a survey and es'!imates for a 14-foot channel were called for by the recently- enacted river and harbor act, a few remarks contained in the report are of interest. He says the mean depth of water to the wharves is 9 feet. Of the nearly 400 arrivals and clearances reported for that port during the year only 38 com- mercial vessels, including tugs with rafts, went up the river to the freight docks, all the other ar- rivals and clearances being of ex- cursion steamers which landed ata hotel near the mouth of the piers. At Toledo there was $64,536.28 expended on the straight-channel project, the sum serving to complete it, and to deepen the water over the Lake Shore shoal 18 and 19 feet. Also the re- moval of the wreck of the small schooner Ferret, sunk by collision in the straight channel. St Ort Clinton only $63.97 was used, chiefly for traveling and incidental expenses. The pier there is reported in bad condition, and it is suggested that it might be reinforced by piling-more riprap stone around the bottom. At Sandusky the dredging was continued, at a cost o $12,388.87, leaving an available balance of nearly $6,000. The project for coming improvement here con- templates a jetty starting from the outermost range light on Cedar Point and extending 2,500 feet or more in a lakeward direction past the southeastern edge of the Deep Hole, which is formed by the scouring caused by the wind raising and lowering the water in the bay and forming a current inward and outward; and which, while it has this scouring effect right off Cedar Point, deposits sediment elsewhere and forms shoals. The general conditions of Sandusky Bay very much re- semble those at the harbor at Galveston, Tex. The im- provement also contemplates the building of a 2,500- foot dyke from the most northeasterly edge of the Deep Hole, and extending parallel with and 300 feet from the projected line of the jetty. This will, it 1s thought, extend the channel permanently into the deep water in the lake. At Huron the extension of 72 feet to the pier was com- pleted last September. The expenditures during the year were $7,870.55. At Vermillion no money was ex- pended; the $2,000 available was insufficient to do any work of a permanent character, and the piers are in too bad shape to repair. The east pier isin ruins for 1,000 feet inside the shore line. The only work that can be done is to rebuild the west pier so far as the funds will allow. At Lorain the extension to the west pier was com- pleted, and considerable dredging done. The amount spent was $7,347.27. The sand has reduced the depth of water in the river two feet since the spring of 1895, and formed a bar across the entrance. A reserve fund of $10,000 is kept for dredging. : At Cleveland $9,596.19 was used for dredging, mak- ing the cut in the breakwater, and repairing the break- water. ‘The contract for rebuilding 322 feet of the east pier was let in June, and the work has now begun. The project for improving the harbor and rebuilding the west pier was postponed to a later communication. At Fairport $1,827.58, and at Ashtabula $26,123 was expended, chiefly for dredging in each case, although the work done at the latter port was chiefly through rock. The inner limit of government work was changed to a considerable distance farther in shore, and the channel was dredged to 20 feet. At Conneaut the expenditures amounted to $22,987.43, chiefly for permanent work, including 600 feet of east pier, and . extensions of pier 526 feet long and a special revetment to the channel bank. The projects outlined for all three of these ports contemplate the construction of — ~ ~ THE CANADIAN LOCK. It is longer, but not so wide as the new American. lock, and was opened last autumn, breakwater dykes, placed at such angles to the piers as to keep the seas from sweeping sand into the channel outside the piers, and assuring a safe entrance. A very important suggestion was made by Col. Smith, and that was that he be allowed to have a steel steamer built at a cost not to exceed $20,000, which should re- place the steamer Swansea, which is not seaworthy enough for use after this season. The steamer will be in service constantly for several seasons to come, and willspend most of her time at Toledo. It is recom- mended in the interest of economy that $10,000 be taken from the Toledo appropriation, $2,000 from Cleveland, $1,500 each from Sandusky, Lorain, Fairport and Ash- tabula, $1,000 from Conneaut and small sums from other ports to n.ake up the $20,000, or to pay for the steamer, if she cost less, in proportion to the above. The steamer would be available at all times, and could be used to much advantage in hydrographic surveys, such as is now being held between the islands of Lake Erie and the mainland, by Assistant Engineer Blunt. The report of Major Symonds, stationed at Buffalo, states that at Buffalo the expenditures of the year were chiefly for repairs to the breakwater. At Erie the chan- nel has been maintained by similar repairs. Horseshoe channel, in Niagara River, was completed 400 feet wide and 18 feet deep by dredging. At Strawberry Islanda cut 120 feet wide was excavated, and at Tonawanda Island a depth of 18 feet was dredged along the harbor front. At the head of Conners Island a channel 200 feet wide, 12 feet deep, was finished through tne shoal, well within the estimated cost. LAKE ONTARIO. According to the annual report of Major Stanton, the 14-foot channel at Charlotte, N. Y., has been maintained and the east pier extended 121 feet, and at both Great and Little Sodus Bay dredging has been continued to improve the channels. At Oswego the breakwater was thoroughly repaired where it had been injured in the 1884 storm. At Sack- ett’s Harbor a surveyor developed the existence under water of a jetty 112 feet long, of which there is no record of construction, NOTICE TO MARINERS. A DANGEROUS NEST OF BOULDERS. Asistant Engineer W. T. Blunt. of Toledo, informs THE RECORD that he has located a very ugly reef, thought'to be that on which the John Oadés, Hesper and American Kagle have struck at various times. It is a large pile of boulders, with a general depth of 15 feet over it, and in places but 13 feet. ‘wo large boulders with but 11 feet over their tops, stand in 19 feet of water and are exceedingly dangerous. The shoal resembles a dumb-bell in shape, and is 350 feet long by 150 feet wide. Marblehead, eight buoys,SE. by S. % S.; eastern edge of Ballast Island, N. 4 W; Lakeside dock, S. by K., % E.; South Point, South Bass Island, NW. by W. % W.; black can, Scott Point Shoal, W. 4% N., 2% miles; Carpenter Point, K. 3% N., 156 miles. ‘The reef is marked by aspar buoy with horizontal red and black stripes, NOTES FOR NAVIGATORS. Elbow Buoy No. 8, a red 25-foot spar has been estab- ! lished in 12 feet of water at the elbow of the shoal at the head of Strawberry Island, about midway between the inland and mainland, in Niagara River. The draw pier of International Bridge bears S. % ., and the south end of Straw- berry Island WSW. Nice shoal buoy No. 4, a red 25- foot spar in Tonawanda channel, was discontinued June 3. . Richelieu & Ontario boats have been. bothered by low water in St. Lawrence River of late years: A good deal of delay has resulted near Split Rock, between Cotean and Beauharnois. Two pilots of the company took soundings here with the result that the boats now use the channel north of that chiefly in use. © For the purpose of giving warn- ing of the approach of tropical hurricanes (and: also of those ex- tremely severe and dangerous storms which sometimes pass across the lake re- gion and north Atlantic coast), the Weather Bureau has adopted a special signal called the hurricane signal, consisting of two-red flags with black centers, displayed one above the other. This signal will be displayed at all weather bureau offices and wind-signal display stations on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and the Great Lakes, and also at numerous other points at sea and lake ports and along the coasts men- tioned. No distinctive night signal will be used. OD Oe Notice boards have been established by the govern- ment of Canada at intervals along the south coast of Vancouver Island, between Cape Beale lighthouse and San Juan Harbour, British Columbia. These boards contain information, for the use of shipwrecked mar- iners, respecting the direction and distance of the near- est lighthouse and also of the nearest Indian village where assistance can be obtained. Seamen are cau- tioned in the event of a wreck in this locality to stay by the ship as long as possible, because all loss of life here- tofore recorded has occurred in'the attempt’ to land, or through exposure after landing, while wrecks have not been broken up rapidly. EEE Oe —e BALTIMORE, Mp., January 27, 1896, H. G. Trout, Esq., King Iron Works, Buffalo, N. Y. Dear Sir: I would state that the propeller wheels fur- nished by you for our steamers Baltimore and Charlotte have proven very satisfactory. I have directed our superintendent engineer to dupli- cate them, so that in case of accident we would always have a spare wheel of your make to put on the steamer, Yours truly, REUBEN FostER, Gen. Mangr.