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ESTABLISHED 1878. Z 3 = z 2 F Zz = VOL. XXII, No. 50. CLEVELAND---DECEMBER 14, 1899---CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 5c. Single Copy. LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. To consider and take action upon all general questions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car- riers, and improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. FRANK J. FIRTH, Philadelphia, 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT. Capt. THos. WILSON, Cleveland. SECRETARY CHARLES H. KEEP, Buffalo. TREASURER. GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL HARVEY D. GOULDER, Cleveland, EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE, James CorRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. GrBson I,. Doucrias, Chairman, Buffalo, COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. UNITED STATES ENGINEER’S REPORT. The annual report for 1899 of Major Clinton B. Sears, Corps of Engineers, U. S: A., in charge of the improvement of rivers and harbors on Lake Superior, has just been issued. It is a very elaborate document, containing a vast amount of information of a general and technical nature concerning the work and its character, materials and methods. The report represents a vast amount of work. It contains in addition to the printed matter a large number of prints show- ing all the details of the work and present progress of the Duluth ship canal and other work under charge of Major Sears. Not the least important part of the report are the statistics of lake commerce at Duluth-Superior and other Lake Superior ports. Since Major Sears has been collecting statistics of commerce at Duluth-Superior the commerce has amounted to $1,161,143,000, and last year amounted to $142,613,000. The system of vessel reports is taken up and accompanies the report. The statistics for the Duluth-Superior harbor are as accurate asit is possible to get them. The valuations of commodities are placed with much care in order to give value to the report on this important feature of __ the business of the harbor. OO SOS : THE NEW REVENUE CUTTER. The plans for the revenue cutter to be built for service on the Great Lakes have been finished by the engineer-in-chief of the revenue cutter service and proposals for bids to build _the vessel will be issued within a short time from the Treasury Department. The bill authorizing the building of this cutter was introduced in the Senate by Senator McMillian of Michi- gan and became a law during the last session of Congress. The object of the bill was to replace in part the cutters Algonquin, _ Gresham and Onondaga, which were removed from the lakes to the Atlantic for service in the war with Spain. The new cutter probably will be used on Lake Erie, though it is pos- sible that the increasing needs of patrol sarvice on Lake Ontario will result in stationing the vessel in those waters, The Treasury Department expects that the vessel will be finished in a little over a year. The plans and specifications Provide for a vessel of the most approved class. The general S. _ hull dimensions are given out as follows: Length over all, _ 178 feet; length between perpendiculars, 162 feet; breadth of beam, molded, 30 feet; depth at side from base line amid- _ Ships, 15 feet. ‘The displacement to mean draft of nine feet - above the bottom of the keel will be 620 tons, The cutter will be provided with a single screw propelled by the msot _ improved class of engines. LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. Congressman Weeks has introduced a bill providing that the annual termi of service of all men employed in the Life- Saving Service on the rivers and lakes of the United States, be fixed at a period of ten month, from the 1st of March to the 31st of December, and that the salary and pay of surf- men so employed, be $70 permonth. This bill was referred to the committee, of which Mr. Corliss will doubtless bea member, as heretofore, and other Congressmen will unite with Mr. Weeks in an effort to secure a favorable report. or A CLASSIFICATION OF WINDS. Instructions to local forecast officials of the Weather Bureau and to observers at all stations, state, in future, winds blow- ing at the rate of one mile an hour and up to nine miles, shall be termed “‘light;’’ from ten to nineteen miles an hour, ‘‘fresh;’’ from twenty to twenty-nine miles an hour, “‘brisk:’’ from thirty to thirty-nine miles an hour, ‘‘high ;”’ from forty to fifty-nine miles an hour, ‘‘a gale;”” sixty miles and above, ‘‘a hurricane.’’ ooo TURBINE-DRIVEN BOATS. In the presidential address to the Institution of Junior Engineers, delivered on the 3d ult., the Hon. Charles A. Parsons, F. R. S., reviewed the history of the steam turbine. He attributed the exceptional speed attained in the Turbinia to the lightness of the macinery and to greater economy of steam. From preliminary trials of the Viper and the Els- wick built turbine-driven vessel, it would appear they will also be phenomenally fast vessels. —— Oe oe ee THE ‘'SOO”’ TRAFFIC. Figures for the Sault ship canal have been computed to the close of November. The total tonnage of the canal was 24,636,552 tons of freight, which is to be compared with a total for the entire year of 1898 of 3,400,000 tons less. This is an increase of 15 per cent. : The great bulk of the lake commerce of the year has been iron ore, which has so far amounted to 13,495,000 gross tons. Shipments of lumber amounted to 1,032,000,000 feet, for the markets of New York and New England. Coal to the extent of 823,380 tons of anthracite and 3,000,000 of bitumi- nous have been received. This is an increase of almost 300,- ooo tons in hard coal. Passengers carried up and down the lakes have increased to almost 50,000 in number, a 20 per cent. improvement. —————$ ee PANAMA CANAL. A dispatch from Paris says that the committee formed by the new Panama Canal. Co. has just published a report on the visit made by the delegates of the company to the isth- mus where they inspected the canal works, and on the best way to finish the work begun, The report says that works and material handed over by the old Panama company is in a good state of preservation. The plans which have been adopted involve the removal of about 24,700,000 cubic metres of earth for whole cutting, of which 11,200,000 are necessi- tated by the Culebra mountain. There are now 3,000 men on the works, In the first year of active work the number will have to be raised to 5,000, and there will be as many as 16,000 at the time of maximum activity. The number of men engaged must average 12,000 during the period of ten years assigned for the complete ex- cavation of the work. Following is a summary of the expense estimated by the company for the execution of plan No. 2. For work on cut- ting, 242,000,000 francs; work on locks, 137,000,000 francs; general total of expenses, 512,000,000 francs, THAT MONTREAL CONCESSION. A special from Montreal is sent out as follows: When the Harcourt-Conners syndicate announced last week that the harbor commission had granted it valuable concessions, and that the matter would be closed up and the grant given at a meeting of the harbor commission and representatives of the syndicate, the announcement was far wide of the fact. The matter was not finally closed. On the contrary, the com- mission decided not to accept the syndicate’s offer finally for the present. The commission decided to await the result of the legal proceedings now under way. The hearing before Justice Pellier in chambers on the ap- plication for an injunction to restrain the commission from executing the grant, will come up on Thursday morning. Not only will the harbor commission defer further negotia- tions with the Harcourt-Conners syndicate until that time, but will wait until the matter is fully settled in the courts. J. R. Booth, of Ottawa, president of the Canada Atlantic railway, has formally asked the harbor commission to delay final action on the offer of the Harcourt-Conners syndicate for thirty days, to enable the Canada-Atlantic to make a de- tailed offer in competition with the offer already made by the Harcourt-Conners syndicate. Strong sentiment in sup- port of this request has sprung up, and is increasing. There is a demand that there shall be no attempt to rush through the syndicate’s scheme, even if it is partially modified. eee ee DO OO SS LAKE ERIE-PITTSBURG CANAL. Abill has been introduced in Congress to empower the Lake Erie & Ohio River Ship Canal Co. to construct a ship canal fifteen feet deep from Pittsburg to some point in Lake Erie, following in generalthe Ohio, Beaver and Mahoning rivers in Pennsylvania and the Mahoning riverin Ohio to a point near Niles, and thence northerly through the state of Ohio to the most accessible harbor on Lake Erie between the Pennsylvania and Ohio State lines and the mouth of the Grand river in Ohio; also to construct a branch canal from the mouth of the Shenango river, in Pennsylvania, and along the river to Greenville, Pa.; also a branch along the Mahoning river from Niles to Warren. The purpose of this great enterprise is to carry ore to Pittsburg, but its futility lies in the fact that while the canal would have a depth of fifteen feet, the Ohio river has only a depth of eight feet, and is not navigable for lake craft. Nor are the Ohio river craft at all fashioned for lake traffic. OO Oo HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE NOTICE. St, Marys RIVER.—Mud Lake lower channel—Reported obstruction near range northeastward of Twin Islands.—No- vember 15, 1899, the Steamer S. S. Curry, when passing the steamer Oliver near the range for Mud Lake lower channel, struck heavily forward on some sunken obstruction, drag- ging her entire length, but reaching clear, and sustaining considerable damage. According to information furnished by the captain of the S. S. Curry, the obstruction lies on. the following approxi- mate bearings as plotted on U. S. Engineers’ chart No. 14: Canadian Range front light East true (E. 4 S. mag.), distant about 1,8, (2%) miles. Richardson Point, tangent, N. 17° W. true (N. by W. & W. ag.). go Islands, north extremity, S. 65° W. true (W. S.W. W’ly mag. ). The S. S. Curry was drawing 17 feet 2 inches at the time she struck, and on an even keel fore and aft. Until this obstruction is accurately located it is advisable to exercise caution when navigating in the vicinity and pass to the southward of the reported position of the obstruction. By order of the Bureau ot Equipment : J. E. CRAIG, Capt, U. S. N., Hydrographer.