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8 THE MARINE RECORD. Aucus?t 24, 1899. a ST. LAWRENCE VERSUS ERIE CANALS. Major Henry A. Gray, of Toronto, member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and engineer in charge of the lake dis- trict under the board of public works of Canada, visited the head of the lakes last week on an inspection tour. Major Gray is a distinguished Canadian engineer and he was much interested in the extensive government improvements that are under way at the head of the lakes. Major Clinton B. Sears, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., escorted him over the work and he expressed surprise at the extent and substan- tial character of the improvements. Major Gray says Canada is going to make a strong effort to enlarge its com- mercial and maritime importance. Discussing this project he said : : : : “ Canada is just now much interested in the grain busi- ness, which is one of the principal items in the transporta- tion of commodities on the Great Lakes. There were 325,- 000,000 bushels of grain raised in the northwest territory last year, and of this amount only 1,800,000 went through Canadian waters on its way to the seaboard. The only rea- son, it is believed, that a great deal more did not go through Canadian waters was because we have no harbor with ade- quate elevator facilities for trans-shipment. It is proposed to make a capacious harbor at Port Colborne at the mouth of the Welland canal, where grain may be trans-shipped from elevators to boats the size of the Welland canal. The providing of aharbor at Port Colborne of sufficient depth and extent would make it possible for the big boats to de- liver their grain to elevators there and then, trans-ship the grain from the elevators to boats that can go through the Welland canal. ‘©Of course this route would be a rival of the Erie canal. This canal has only six feet of water and is 11 to 14 days to New York. By sending the grain via Port Colborne, the Welland canal and the St. Lawrence river to Montreal, the time consumed would be 6% days, and when at Montreal the grain would be 4oo miles nearer Liverpool than if it had gone via the Erie canal to New York. “There is another advantage; the grain on the Canadian water route will be in cold water all the way, whereas the water of the Erie canal is warm. I understand that it is desirable to have the grain transported through cold water if possible. We have already got an appropriation for the work at Port Colborne, but it will cost about $2,500,000 for the dredging, construction of breakwater and docks for elevators. If we could only get reciprocity with the United States in the lake trade it would be a good thing all around. The present minister of the board of public works of Can- ada, J. Israel Tarte, is very enthusiastic about promoting Canada’s commercial future. We shall have our Canadian canals ready for operation some time next season, with 14 feet of water from Port Colborne to Montreal. Once we have our canals in operation, and Port Colborne is improved: so that it will be the objective point for a big commerce, I think the United States will be disposed to be liberal in its views regarding reciprocity in lake matters with Canada. There is also talk of building a large smelter in Port Col- borne. There will be no jealousy between Port Colborne and the other Canadian ports, such as Parry Sound, God- erich, Collingwood and Owen Sound, for the proposed har- bor at Port Colborne will make a new business of its own, without detracting from the other ports mentioned.”’ Major Gray says he does not believe the proposed deep water project to the sea for general inter-lake and ocean traffic, will ever be realized. He says that the project is not practicable for the reason that boats would have to proceed at reduced speed and they would not find foreign cargoes for return trips in sufficient numbers. zg, ee es ape eli IMPROVE ALL WATERWAYS. The canals that serve commerce between the Great Lakes and the port of New York, are doing a very good business this year. From the opening of the Erie canal on April 22, to the end of the third week in July the tonnage was 1,406,- 811 tons, an increase of over 298,000 tons as compared with the corresponding period of last year, though it is only fair to take into account the fact that there were two weeks more of navigation this year than last. On the basis of the business already done, it is expected that the season will be one of the most successful on the canals for a long period of years. It is worth noting that the increased traffic on the canals is attributed in the main to improved business conditions, and not to the effects of canal improvement work, which must be further advanced before it can be regarded as ex- erting any calculable influence. All of which indicates that the one thing needed to make the canals a great regulator of freights and a prime benefi- cence to a large and most deserving population is proper maintenance and protection. The canals must be improved and kept up, just as the railroads are, or the waterway can- not compete. That water carriage beats rail carriage is made very plain by the fact that it costs as much to move a ton of iron from Birmingham or Chattanooga by rail, a distance of say 300 miles, as it costs to have the same iron carried from New Orleans to Liverpool, a distance of 3,000 miles. The pessimistic tone taken by many eminent men in ref- erence to the country’s internal waterways is unfortunate, aprime error. It will be the part of wisdom to improve, make more efficient, every mile of water line we have, and to add as many miles to the present mileage as possible. The Great Lakes, honestly and effectively improved by the federal government, have been a tremendous factor in the .cheapening of iron and steel, anda powerful regulator of freight rates between the west and the seaboard. But the lakes must be extended to New York by the canal, and all attempts, by the State through which the canal runs, to make it more efficient seem to end in failure. The money, appropriated in millions, is wasted and stolen. The contractors and officials fatten, and the public gets nothing in return for its big outlay. If this cannot be rem- edied elsewise, the canals will have to be turned over to the federal government. The waterway must be maintained. The country needs it and many more miles of like lines. As we have said, every mile of available river should be improved and made the most of. The lakes must be still further deepened at shallow points, so as to give twenty-five feet of water from Duluth to Buffalo. And as toour southern rivers they should be of much greater use than they are, for the handling of heavy mate- rials, coal, pig iron, ore, timber, grain, etc. Those who imagine that water transportation has ‘‘played out’? are greatly mistaken. This is shown wherever there is an efficient, reliable water channel such as the Great Lakes furnish on which are carried freights at rates the railroad cannot even approach, let alone meet.—The Tradesman, Chattanooga, Tenn. ao ore VISIBLE SUPPLY OF GRAIN As compiled for THE MARINE RECORD, by George F. Stone, Secretary Chicago Board of Trade. CITIES WHERE WHEAT.| CORN, OatTs. RYE. BARLEY STORED. Bushels. | Bushels. |} Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels, Buttaloiaeca cases 1,642,000 634,000 129,000 44.000 98,000 CHICAGO i) cei accc 6,058,000} 1,679,00¢ 721,000 166,000 21,000 WELTOlE as anit ree 479,000 62,000 II,000 TS;000 ogee Duluthis. sieeve se 3,996,000 258,000 72,000 73,000 53,000 Kort William Ont) «ls, 400,000). sche alin crea cle sw eel peaein yetere'| genera oa gine Milwaukee.......... 59,000 BiOOO| ticle na 2,000 10,000 Port Arthur, Ont.... OG, 000 bers utes a8 j nV Ses a gov RETR cee Toledo. .+.] 2,132,000 517,000 26y,000 EE 000/15, = ccastes » « 63, 00¢ ie SOOO |Get 14,000 863.000 34,000 OT;OOO! Vi che euine 10,000 657,000 991,000 455,000 19,000 95,000 Grand Total..... 36,207,000] 7,965,000] 4,039,000] 623,000] 406,000 Corresponding Date, TSOS) eves hioeeaaiee 5,850,000} 16,123,000} 2,910,000 401,000 256,000 ITIGNCASE fico cisnvert es cece cee Be yken eoabing,« 152,000 51,000 45,000 Decrease ..:....i.... 99;000| 2, 216.000| sar ube eniee ew outel ue ar wean ies While the stock of grain at lake ports only is here given, the total shows the figures for the entire country except the Pacific Slope. a —————— BIDS FOR CEMENT. According to the abstract of proposals for furnishing 15,000 barrels, more or less, of natural hydraulic cement for use in construction of dam No, 6, Ohio River, opened Aug. 12, by Major W. H. Bixby, Corps of Engineers, U.S. A., Cincinnati, O., The Cummings Cement Co., Akron, N. Y, bid 73% cents in sacks, on board cars in barrel quantities, In barrels the price submitted is 87 cents. The Nationa} Cement Co., L’td, Pittsburg, Pa., bid 93% centsin barrel lots delivered in sacks on board cars but submitted no bid for delivery in barrels. od The largest cargo of railroad material that has gone from an American port was cleared from Philadelphia aboard the British steamer Puritan. It consisted of forty locomotives and eighteen steel bridges for the Chinese Eastern Railway, now in course of construction under the supervision of the Russian authorities with the financial aid of the Russo- Chinese Bank. A similar cargo is now loading, destined for Russian Black Sea ports. NOTES. Ir 1s not often that the Navy list of ships contains two ships with the same name, but this is the case now, as is shown by the recently issued Navy Register. At Port Or- chard Naval Station the old wooden cruiser Iroquois is sta- tioned, and at Honolulu is also an Iroquois doing duty as a port tug for the use of ships going in and out of that nar- row harbor. A ‘‘Practicay, Course in Mechanical Drawing,’’? Fox & Thomas. The object of this work is to provide a simple, practical course of progressive lessons in mechanical draw- ing. The exercises and illustrations are elementary, yet progressive in character. Chapters are given on the use of the T square, triangles and ruling pen, dimension lines, drawing to scale, and the use of the regular instruments used in drawing. The authors state that a second edition will be on the basis of a more scientific work, but the be- ginner would do well to master the contents of this valuable little volume of about 100 pages before entering into the larger field. From the press of D. Van Nostrand Co., New York. Price, $1.25. THE French Society of Colonial and Maritime Studies has appointed a commission to discuss modifications in maritime phrases with the special object of doing away with the use in France of English words, such as steamer, turret- deck, whaleback, cargo, etc. The Commission will also give exact meanings to French sea terms which now are used without proper precision. The fact that yachting has entered France by way of England accounts for the adop- tion of so many English words, a condition that is paralleled in the terminizing of sports, such as football and bicycling, which crossed the channel southward. In our own country we find our vernacular harnessed to ‘‘ automobile,’’ because that vehicle had its first development in France. REAR ADMIRAL J. G. WALKER, U. S. N., recently in New York on his way to Europe, is quoted as saying: ‘I don’t know how long the Isthmian Canal Commission will be away, or how much time it will take to investigate the Panama canal, That.can only be determined after we reach Paris, inspect the maps and drawings, the reports of the engineers and constructors and learn how much time has been spent already, and how much time and money will be required to finish the job. Meanwhile the Nicaraguan canal question is outside of our consideration for the pres- ent. Anything that has any bearing upon the Panama canal we are to study and collect. We expect to meet all the noted engineers of France in the course of our research. I hardly think that we will be in a position to say much before next summer.” IN REGARD to Belleville boilers, 1am told by a well- known marine surveyor at a leading United States port that there are large installations of those boilers, of about a score of boilers each, on two vessels of the Northern Steamship Co., trading on the lakes between Buffalo and Duluth. They have not, he says, been doing well, 10 per cent. of the installations having been always out of service for re- pairs. The coal consumption he describes as ‘‘ something enormous.’’ It is difficult to keep firemen on these boats. They generally have to be changed every voyage, the work being so hard and the risk of accident so considerable. My informant says: ‘‘ The failure of these boilers in America cannot be due to salt water, seeing that the boats trade on fresh-water lakes.’’ He adds that a steamer fitted with an installation of eight large boilers of another water-tube type has lately been refitted with cylindrical boilers, the result being that the speed of the vessel has been increased from 17 to 19 knots.—Fairplay, London. THOMAS CURTIS CLARKE, past president American So- ciety Civil Engineers, writing to the chairman of the com- mittee on canals, State of New York, says: ‘‘ITam advised that the Ottawa Navigation Co., formed to improve that river from Montreal to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron to 15 feet deep, has now been financed in London, and if so, it will be built during the next three years. The cost of send- ing a bushel of wheat from Duluth or Chicago to Liverpool by this route would be 8.75 cents, as against 12 cents to 12.25 cents via New York and Erie canal as at present. But, if the Champlain route, leaving the Ottawa route above Montreal and going to New York through Lake Champlain and the Hudson river were improved to 14 feet depth, the cost from Chicago or Duluth to Liverpool via New York would be reduced to 9 cents per bushel. The cost of sending wheat would be 1.53 cents per bushel less by this Ottawa-Cham- plain route than the cost of sending wheat from Chicago, to Sind ga by the Erie canal, even if enlarged toa 10 feet raft.