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| 4 4 L: MARCH 8, I900. LAKE LEVELS—CHICAGO CANAL. An anonymous communication in type written form, dated Sunday, March gq, postmarked Chicago and signed ‘‘A Ves- selowner,’’ was found in the RECORD’s mail on Monday morning. The screed went the way of the unsigned, more especially as it contained some wrong statements and scur- rilous allusions to the engineer in charge of the government -work within the Buffalo district. . Quite a strong sentiment has developed within the past \ few weeks on the subject of trying to maintain the level of the lakes by placing remedial or controlling works at a point in Niagara river, and it has more than once been hinted that the bill introduced by J. B. Corliss, of Detroit, to place a dam at Niagara, was, in some manner, strongly linked with the Chicago drainage canal enterprise, and possibly, though ina less trenchant degree, with that of the “Soo” power ' canal project. We now find that several papers have printed nearly the entire anonymous communication, it is our province, therefore, to reprint a portion of the letter, so that those more nearly interested may see the evident conjunction existing between the capitalists concerned in the Chicago drainage canal and the promoters of the Corliss dam scheme. “The bill introduced by Hon. J. B. Corliss, of Detroit, providing for the erection of a regulating dam in the Niagara river, at the foot of Lake Erie, to maintain a uniform depth of water in all harbors, no matter what the conditions are, or the effect the Chicago drainage canal may have on the lake levels, is now before the House Committee on Rivers and Harbors. * : * * * * * If this bill is delayed or dies’ in the committee, and work is not at once commenced on the: proposed dam, I shudder for the consequences. Chicago has opened her drainage canal, through which 40,000 cubic feet of water per minute is now being drawn, with the expectation of increasing to 80,000, to protect health and sanitary conditions The forests have largely been cut off, and every indication is that for the next two years the evaporation from the lakes will be great, and the source of supply unusually small. Any man can figure for himself the consequences: Take 40,000 cubic feet alone per minute, and. divide the number of surface square feet in the lakes by this sum, and you will find that within two or three years the lake levels must be drawn down nearly two feet, just as certain as the drawing off of the waters from the smallest mill pond, or wash bowl, unless you curtail the outlets. Bae Whatever time it takes to lower the lakes, it will take an equal time to restore them after the outlets are controlled; consequently I predict to an absolute certainty that unless something 1s done at once to husband these waters, by the spring of I901 many large vessels will be aground and unable to get to their docks, and great injury done to the marine interests of the Great Lakes for at least a year, as it will surely take that time to restore them to their normal level. For every month that this work is postponed, 1,728,- 000,000 cubic feet of these precious waters are being drawn off, without an adequate curtailing at the other end, which is absolutely necessary, or great damage will be done, which will take just as many months or years to restore as there are delays in attending to it. A VESSELOWNER. Chicago, March 4. The foregoing seems to be a very plausible rendition of a quite, possible result, although we must not forget the anonymous part of it. Hiding under the nom-de-plume of a Chicago vesselowner comes forth this Daniel in judgment, having succeeded in permitting, by his acquiesence, the boring of an artificial outlet from the lakes, or the forming of a second bunghole to a cask, he now argues that the natural outlet must be dammed, or that the regular and natural bunghole should be made smaller. It appears very clearly that ‘‘the man afraid to sign his own name’? is bound hard and fast to the Chicago drainage canal and its stolen outflow of lake water; it is ejually as clear that he is committed to the Corliss Niagara dam scheme and it seems quite as apparent that he is not a vesselowner, or he would have raised his ‘‘vice’’ earlier. All of which goes to show that the great American hog still finds subsistance to exist, and that his successful existence runs parallel to and equals the number of suckers he can hoodwink and humbug into his way of thinking. The Niagara river has been as it is for centuries, the Chicago drainage canal has hardly yet been opened. Keep an eye on the latter, the furmer has been watched. The Chicago canal is the tail end of the subject, not the body. — Tn NEW CHARTS FOR CHICAGO RIVER. Lieut. Gelm, U. S. N., in charge of the United States branch Hydrographic Office at Chicago, expresses the opinion that the current caused by the opening of the drain- age canal will not seriously retard navigation in the Chicago river if the tunnels are lowered and the center pier bridges removed. He says the changed conditions will make it THE MARINE RECORD. necessary to prepare an entirely new set of hydrographic maps and charts of the Chicago river for the guidance of shippers. ment have been rendered valueless by reason of the recent alteration of levels and the introduction of a current into the stream. In speaking of the possible dangers to naviga- tion under the new conditions Lieut. Gelm said: “The current will not affect navigation to any great extent after we have become accustomed to the changed conditions. By using heavy lines, powerful tugs and the precautions usually exercised in navigating tide waters there should be but little difficulty experienced. I assume that the current in the river will not average more than two miles an hour, and if this be true there is little cause for alarm. In the East river, New York, and at Hampton Roads and many other ports where there is tide water, the current often reaches four or five miles an hour and still the boats manage to navigate with but little difficulty.” Sn BIDS FOR A REVENUE CUTTER. Bids for building a revenue cutter for the Great Lakes were opened at Washington a few days ago by the chief of the revenue cutter service. They were as follows: Chamblin & Scott, Richmond, Va., $163,500, to be com- pleted twelve months from date of contract; the William R. Trigg Co., of Richmond, Va., $157,000, on or before May 28, 1991; the American Ship Building Co., Cleveland, $250,000, on or before May 1, 1901; the Townsend & Downey Ship Building and Repair Co., New York, $151,000, twelve months from date of contract. The award will not be made for several days. The figures submitted by the American Ship Building Co. show clearly that) they have contracts booked well ahead; furthermore, that enough of this departmental work has been constructed on the lakes to prove to builders that it is necessary to allow a fairly liberal margin for extra expenses on governmental work. oo or or STAGE OF LAKE SUPERIOR LEVELS. J. H. Darling, of the United States Engineer Office, at Duluth, reports that the stage of water on ake Superior for the month of February was eight inches higher than during the same month a year ago. ; The present stage of water on Lake Superior is the high- est on record for this time of the year. The low stage for the year is always experienced about this time and the water is usually at its lowest ebb between March 1 and March 15. Then it begins to improve steadily until late in the summer. The present depth therefore is about the minimum for this year. It would appear that with even a normal amount of precipitation between now and the be- ginning of summer the stage of water will be higher on Lake Superior this year than last. oo MERITED APPROBATION. Gov. Roosevelt, of New York, has written a letter to Sec- retary of War Elihu Root, commending the work of Major Thomas W. Symons, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., as a member of the State Canal Advisory Board. The letter is as follows: EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ALBANY. FEB. 26, 1909. Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary of War, Washington. D. C.: Sir—Pursuant to authority granted by your department a year ago, Maj. Thomas W. Symons, United States Engineer, has acted as one of the canal commitiee of five appointed by me to draw upa report on the future canal policy of the State of New York. It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of this work, or the importance of the part played therein by Maj. Symons. The report of the commit- tee is a public document of the highest value, and the mem- bers have been unanimous in assuring me that their work would have been altogether impossible, at least in the shape it actually took, had it not been for the invaluable service of Maj. Symons. Ruskin somewhere poiuts out that where work is done for the fee it is rare indeed to find it really well done, because all really great work, all work which makes the whole community a debtor, is done by some man to whom the work itself is the reward and the doing of it the fee. Such has emphatically been the case with the work of Maj. Symons. For ten months he gave his spare time to the service of the State of New York without any reward whatsoever, performing a task which probably could not have been performed at all by any other man, and which if paid for would have cost the State many thousands of dol- lars. The only reward he can be given is the hearty recog- nition of his disinterested and public-spirited labor. I, therefore, write you to say with all possible earnestness and sincerity on behalf of the people of the State of New York, that at least we most deeply appreciate his services and cor- STATE OF NEW YORK. } The charts now in the possession of the govern- dially thank both Maj. Symons himself and the War De- partment through whose courtesy Maj. Symons was permit- ted to serve on the committee. May I have your permission to make public this let Very sincerely yours, ee _ THEODORE ROOSEVELT. a ; INVESTIGATING LAKE LEVELS —_. After holding it under consideration for six week the Sen- ate committee on foreign relations decided to favorably re port the joint resolution introduced by Senator Platt of New York, appropriating $20,000 towards the expenses of an in-— ternational commission which the the President has author: ized to appoint in co-operation with the government of Great Britain, whose duty will be to report from time to time npon the conditions and uses of the waters adjacent to the boun: ary line between the United States and Canada} including all the waters of the lakes and rivers whose waters flow by the River St. Lawrence to the Atlantic ocean, and also upon the effect upon the shores of these waters and the structures — thereon, and upon the interests of navigation, by reason, of their diversion from their natural flow, and, further, to report upon the necessary measures to regulate such diver- sions. The commission is to be composed of four persons — from each country, and it is authorized to employ such sur- veyors, experts and other persons as it may deem needful. — The necessity for such a commission arises from the num- erous schemes for ship canals connecting the lakes with each — other by new routes, or connecting the lakes with the ocean, ~ and the proposition fr damming the Niagara river in order to regulate the fluctuations of level in Lake Erie and the channels above it. The'canals would divert the water of the lakes from existing channels and it is jn controversy what effect that diversion would have on the levelofthelakes and — the existing channels which have been deepened at such great cost by the United States government. The proposed Niag- ara river dam is intended to bring the level of the’ lakes up to the high water stage and teduce the fluctuations to amin- imum. ag At the first suggestion of the scheme for a dam it was * favorably regarded by the lake interests, the only question being its practicability. Now that the United States engineers. have reported that the scheme, in one of its forms at least, is practicable, other considerations have suggested themselves and there is a desire for more information before further steps are taken to carry it into effect. With the favorable report on the practicability of a regulating dam at the foot of Lake _ Erie the various schemes fur ship canals, which will divert the ~ waters of the lakes from their present channels, have devel- ~ oped new activity. At the same time strong protests have been made from both sides of the international boundary that the damming of the lake will threaten the low lands ~~ with destructive inundations. It is evident that the pro-» posed dam cannot be constructed without the co-operation, or at least assent, of Great Britain, as the waters affected are Canadian as well as American. eke The same international character attaches in greater or less degree to the ship canal schemes, and therefore an — international investigation is proper before either of them is carried into effect. The Chicago drainage canal, which it” is proposed to convert into a ship canal connecting the lakes and the Gulf of~Mexico by way of the Mississippi river, obtains its waters from Lake Michigan, whichis wholly within’ United States territory, but it is yet to be determined whether it will not appreciably affect the level of the lakes and connecting channels that are partly Canadian. The proposed Canadian canals from Georgian Bay to Toronto and from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie will divert water — from lakes and rivers that are both American and Canadian. — The canals proposed from Lake Erie to the Ohio river, © whether it be that which Pittsburg has set its affections on, or the two for which the Ohio legislature gravely asked the favor of Congress, will divert some of the water of the lakes . from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi route to the ocean. The $62,000,000 state ship canal to New Vork, or either of — the ship canal routes to that city reported on by the United States engineers, will also divert water from the St. Law- rence route to the Hudson river route to the Atlantic. Hither of these proposed ship canals will divert water from an international channel, and is therefore a proj er subject for international in estigation. They all tend to lower the depth of water in existing channels and in harbors — along the lakes, and for that reason ought not to be per- — mitted until their probable effect on the lake waterways has — been thoroughly investigated. For these reasons it is to be — hoped the proposed commision will be speedily authoriz: d and get to work.—Kditorial, Cleveland Plait Dealer. eae eee ee NOTICE TO MARINERS. LiGHt-HousE cron, goa Dist} teret OFFICE OF THE LIGHT-HOUSE INSPECTOR, 9TH DIST., CHICAGO, ILL., March 1, 1900, CLOSING OF CEDAR RIVER LIGHT STATION—Notice is hereby given that the Cedar river, Michigan, light station has closed for the winter. : By order of the Light- House Board. F. M. SyMonps, Commander, U. S. Navy Inspector 9th Light- House District —— Se Review on Appeal.—Where an award made for salvage services is based on correct principles, and is not clearly ex- orbitant, it will not be interfered with on appeal, although it may be greater than the appellate court would haye allowed. The Thornley, 98 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 735.