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‘THE MARINE RECORD 9 eee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSEEEE———eeeeee—e—eeeeeee eee eee ee tions and by joint operations in the field so much of the I4ist meridian of west longitude as is necessary to be defined for the purpose of determining the exact limits of the territory ceded to the United States by the treaty between the United States and Russia of March 30, 1867. Inasmuch as the summit of Mount St. Elias, although not ascertained to lie in fact upon the r4rst meridian, is so nearly coincident therewith that it may conveniently ‘be taken as a visible landmark whereby the initial part of said meridian shall be established, it is agreed that the Commissioners, should they conclude that it is advisable so to do, may deflect the most southerly portion of said line so as to make the range with the summit of Mount St. Elias, such deflection not to extend more than twenty geographical miles northwardly from the initial point. “The data relating to the determination already made at this time by either of the two Governments concerned, of points on or near the 141st meridian for the purpose of fixing its position, shall be submitted by each Govern- ment to the Commissioners, who shall decide which of the results of the determination shall be adopted by them. In case of disagreement between the Commissioners as to _ the correct geographical co-ordinates of one and the same point determined by either of the two Governments sep- arately, a position midway between the two locations in question of the r41st meridian shall be adopted, pro- vided the discrepancy between them shall not exceed 1,000 feet. In case of a greater discrepancy a new joint deter- mination shall be made by the Commissioners. “Each Government shall bear the expenses incident to the employment of their own appointees and of the operations conducted by them, but the cost or material used in permanently marking the meridian and of its transportation shall be borne jointly and equally by the two Governments. _ “The present convention shall be duly ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by Her Britannic Majesty, and the ratification shall be exchanged at Washington or in London as soon as possible within twelve months from the date thereof.” Ne THE MERCANTILE MARINE. The latest edition of the “Repertoire General de la Marine Merchande,”’ published by the Bureau Veritas, contains the usual general summary of the steamships be- longing to the different maritime nations, and measuring 100 tons gross and upward, as also the accustomed list of sailing vessels measuring 50 tons net and upward, and likewise a list of the smaller vessels which are classed in the Veritas register. The following table shows the num- ber of steamers of over 100 tons, and the collective gross tonnage belonging to the 16 principal maritime nations— that is, whose aggregate gross steam tonnage surpasses 100,000 tons. Steamers. Gross tons. 18096. 1896. Great (Britain: and colonies. ../) 0.5.0.0 5,090 10,245,577 (CAs Un bes cai las eat 8 Marg So Rs em Be 831 1,300,472 Titre Ve ote Cceaue OTE OM rete simee nny Oe ons suaal a ese eer tt REY) 933,244 Cmitede States? ei). Soke. 0 Oe SS 477 701,707 Spain $8. ORLY: 305 519,315 UN HNIAVE ES Gai ha hse BL Re PEO TICS 551 494,012 Ttaly ic 222 344,523 Ton Set (Ge Geiant er canarne Geer are Se CRO ear a a erean as 204 320,704 Japan .. 267 313,503 PRS STAG si ha Se Ie ea 314 277,302 Acistria- Hungary. ).3. 5265.65 156 254,269 PP aaie eieo ehy e a hae eeek ow lee ea ee 265 248,773 Sweden 427 2335777 ehcocetnce ais Si tat aw aaa see oot 107 144,075 BVA Te itis. «see eI DARE RS sitce wiere ies ie ves 314 139,305 Pele ie. Re gues d Me 66 139,300 Besides the steam tonnage set forth in the above table, there are 2,667 small steamers (below 100 tons) measuring altogether 415,069 tons gross. The number of existing steamers whose measurement is between 5,000 and 6,000 tons is 131; between 6,000 and 8,000 tons, 59; those over 8,000 tons, 25, and of these eight are of more than 10,000 tonnage, viz., the Campania, Friedrich der Grosse, Geor- gie, Lucania, New York, Paris, St. Louis and St. Paul. The general total of the steamers of over 100 tons 1s given in the Repertoire as 11,155, representing 17,089,596 tons gross and 10,761,025 tons net. The sailing tonnage is di- vided among the principal maritime nations as follows—13 nations possession sailing tonnage of over 100,000 tons. Ships. Net tons. eae ae Great Britain and colonies.............- 8,72! 3,207,025 De Sintees oes i. voce eee SOB Ly. 1,358,407 VAN ee cee sca ene esis seer 2,801 1,176,174 META oo cle ee ewes we gies ee eee 1,096 566,073 [colts ones artes iG gm eae aC 1,692 472,002 Russia BA Ae 363,046 Reet te er ee Peta ews cece ees 1,444 285,605 France . 1,425 252,940 Sete ras SS Sais oe 1,059 246,196 Turkey . 1,247 241,096 Pate MAC Tl. Pree oe eee le es 1,115 167,143 Denmaitic Ga. ke see a ok cee 795 149,843 Holland . 642 139,049 A NEW PADDLE WHEEL. Randall Mitchell, a citizen of Detroit, but formerly a native of Edinburgh, has had a patent granted to him on a submerged paddle-wheel, which bids fair to revolution- ize the character of side-wheel steamers. That the device is of great merit may be realized from the fact that Mr. Mitchell put over 17 years of work and thought upon the invention before he completed it to his full satisfaction. As it stands today it is the most efficient paddle-wheel on the market. Some of its features are included in the letters patent as follows: 1. The paddles, being -entirely submerged, are not exposed to injury from floating timber or other obstruc- tions. 2. The progress of the vessel is easily and promptly controlled by the lever in the hands of the officer on watch. Being first to discover danger ahead, he can instantly reverse the motion of the wheels by changing the position of the circular cam without waiting to signal b> the engineer to stop and reverse the engines. The time thus saved will in many instances avert-disastrous col- lisions. 33. In navigating narrow and crooked streams, or when approaching a dock or landing, the motion of either wheel may be retarded or stopped as desired for the time being. 4. A vessel may be held in a fixed position against. a current or head wind to permit an exchangé of signals with other vessels or parties on shire whenever desired. All these and other desirable performances are executed without the co-operation of the engineer. 5. It will be further understood that if an increase of power should make an increase of paddle surface desir- able, a series of shafts may be furnished with paddles and operated in conjunction. } 6. A war steamer thus provided might lose a number of paddles while under fire without being disabled. Mr. Mitchell (proposes to have the American Patent Agency, through their Detroit office, organize a company for him, and the paddle-wheels will be for sale in all parts of the country. This device is particularly appli- cable to use on ocean and sound steamers, as guards are not necessary unless desired. 2 FOREIGN MERCANTILE MARINE. From statistical tables issued recently by Lloyd’s Regis- ter of British and Foreign Shipping it appears that there were on the Register of the United Kingdom on the 31st December last, 20,805 vessels of 13,144,213 tons. The total is made up of 8,530 steamers of 10,242,192 tons, and 12,275 sailing ships of 2,902,021 tons. The total addition of steam tonnage during the year has been 780,247 tons gross; and, of sailing tonnage, 61,200 tons gross, or, in all, 841,447 tons gross. Over 96 per cent. of this addition consists of new vessels, not one of which has been built abroad. a PACIFIC COAST TONNAGE. Vessels owned on the Pacific Coast is the title of a book published by the San Francisco Commercial News, copies of which can be obtained free of charge by all who write for them and mention that they saw this notice in the Marine Record. The book contains a complete list of all vessels documented at San Francisco, Puget Sound ports, Astoria, Portland, Eureka, Wilmington and San Diego custom houses. From the report we learn that there was 39,271 tons removed from the list in 1896, and 31,529 tons added, leaving a loss of 17,762 tons. The book will be valuable to a great many people in the East, as it gives the tonnage and name and address of the managing owner of each vessel mentioned. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. AGREEMENT OF 1817—REDUCTION OF NAVAL FORCES UPON:.THE AMERICAN’ LAKES. By J. M. Callahan, of Johns Hopkins University. The inland waterway. which stretches along the northern border of the United States was the theater of warlike movement and of desperate conflict from a time previous to the discovery of Champlain till the close of the war of 1812. The conflict between savage tribes became a strug- gle between two powerful European nations, until at last the supremacy of England on the new continent was as- sured. But the Anglo-Saxon had not won for England alone. The liberty-loving colonists who were battling with the forest and making a new life south of the lakes claimed the right to govern themselves in their new home. The struggle by which they secured the lakes’ as their northern boundary did not end until their claims had been emphasized by fleets and diplomacy in a war which has since been, perhaps, well characterized as “unwise and unnecessary,” although the fiery speeches of fascinating Americans and the slowness of the British Government in repealing the “orders of the council” made it appear un- avoidable at that time. With the close of the war came the almost universal desire for peace. In England a few wanted to send Well- ington to America to direct a continuation of the war: in America a few favored the conquest of Canada; but the few thinking people received the news of peace with glad- ness. Jefferson wrote that Quebec and Halifax would have been taken, but that peace and reconciliation were better than conquest by war. He had not lost confidence in the strength of the Republic, but he hoped that the motto of “Carthago delenda est’? might not be forced upon it. It was a time for repression of passion rather than for the perpetration of hatred. Jefferson’s advice concerning the “inscription for the Capitol which the British burnt” was that it should be brief and so no pas- sion could be imputed to it. Peace had been concluded at Ghent amidst the festiy- ities of Christmas eve in 1814, and as soon as the slow- sailing craft of that day could traverse the waters of the Atlantic the news was proclaimed in America on each side of the lakes. But entire peace could not be guaran- teed by proclamation. How was the temple of Janus to be kept closed? Manifestly, the most apparent danger of future collisions would lie in the relations of the two’ peoples alone the northern limits of the United States, While Jefferson was trying to “eradicate the war feeling which the newspapers had nourished” and wishing for the two “countries to shake hands together,’ what measures should be adpoted to lessen the possible sources of future misunderstandings, as well as to accelerate the return of fraternal feelings, desires and actions? The develop- ment of the Northwest was affected by the presence of British troops in Canada and of British vessels on the lakes. How should this danger be avoided? These were questions which the wise, well-trained leaders of 1815 had before their minds. Perhaps no better leaders could have been selected for the hour. They consulted only the interests of the country. They had no axe to grind at the expense of the public peace. Their statesmanship did not sink into morbid abuse of some fancied enemy. They and the people for whom they stood, when they looked back and saw that the world had moved, began to look forward for the things that should grow in the new era of quickening activity, when great cities should be erected along the south shores of the limitary lakes. ; “The statesmen of that period, sincerely desirous o establishing a lasting peace, applied their minds on both - sides to effective arrangements which would render these waters neutral.” They saw at once that if peace were merely to lead to a perpetual race in naval construction, such a peace would be only temporary and expensive. Building of naval vessels would have gone on ad libitum, possibly ad infinitum, greatly to the emolument of ship- builders, perhaps, but at the risk of strained relations between the United States and Canada. The first suggestion of the idea of making the lake region neutral appears to have originated during the administration of President Washington, and by the President himself, as a means of preserving peace at home. On May 6, 1794, Mr. Randolph, Secretary of State, wrote to Mr. Jay, who had been sent to negotiate a treaty with England, that in case the ‘‘subject of a com- mercial treaty be listened to,” it would be well to consider as one object the following: “In peace no troops to be kept within a limited distance of the lakes.’’. There is no record of this subject having been considered in the negotiations. Jay’s treaty clearly gave Great Britain the advantage on the lakes, much to the disappointment of Mr. Madison and others, but probably no better terms could have been secured at that time. It permitted British subjects “to navigate all the lakes, rivers and waters of the United States up to the highest point of entry;”’ but it was expressly stated that “vessels of the United States were not to be admitted into the seaports, harbors, bays or creeks of His Majesty's American dominions.” By it the lake trade fell into the hauds of