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ESTABLISHED (878. VOL. XXIV, No. 33. CLEVELAND -- AUGUST 15, 1901 -- CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 5c. Single Copy LAKE: GARRIERS’: ASSOCIATION: To consider and take action upon all general questions relating to the navigation and carrving business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car- riers, and toimprove the character of the service reudered to the public. PRESIDENT. ®©& . A. B. WoLvVIN, Duluth, 3 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT. Capr. J. G. KEITH, Chicago, SECRETARY. CHARLES H. KEEP, . Buffalo, TREASURER. GEorRGE P. McKay, Cleveland. CONS Es Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. HARVEY D. Gou:DER, JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairn an, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Gisson I, DotGLas, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, C'eveland, RIVER AND HARBOR APPROPRIATIONS. A public meeting of representative men from every city having either an ocean, lake or river frontage and which could in any possible way be affected by the passage of a river and harbor bill, has been called to convene in Balti- more on Oct. 8 and 9. The call for the conference is signed by three New Orleans.men who began the work of creat- ing public sentiment in favor of increased appropriations for harbor purposes immediately after the failure of the last session of congress to pass such a measure. It is proposed to summon into conference all governors of states, congressmen, mayors of cities and representa- tives of chambers of commerce, and to get an expression from them in regard to the attitude which they think con- gress should maintain towards a harbor bill in the next session. The invitations to the conference, states that, in the opinion of the signers, the policy of the last sessions has been disastrously economical in respect to maritime im- provements and that the continuation of such policy in the end means a raise in the rates for passage and freight, over the waterways of the country. It is claimed that con- gress in its failure to provide funds for harbor purposes has been misguided in its efforts of economy and that it has resulted in allowing much that had already been done to improve harbors and ports to fall into partial decay. The object of the conference is to create a public senti- ment in favor of’ large appropriations, and it is believed by the men back of the meeting that an expression of representative men from cities along the Pacific, Gulf, Atlantic, Great Lakes and navigable rivers will have its effect on legislation. ———— iO oa oe EXPLORING LABRADOR. It is quite within the bounds of possibility that Mr. Clergue, president of the Lake Superior Power Co., and the originator of industrial developments on a gigantic scale, may eventually accomplish as much for Canada as Mr. J. J. Hill, of the Great Northern Railway Co.; has for the United States, particularly in his western enterprises. The following dispatch seems to warrant a thorough exploration of the territory adjoining the province of On- tario: Labrador is now attracting the attention of mining cap- italists, and its exploitation on a large scale may be looked for ere long. While it has not been known so far as to have . any gold deposits, it does possess iron beds and pulpwood areas of perhaps even greater value than the Klondike’s wealth, and certainly more accessible. Labrador occupies a portion on the eastern face of the continent akin to that occupied on the west by the Yukon territory, but for four to five months of the year Labrador can be reached easily by the mail steamer plying from this port. The territory is vast, half as large as Europe and settled only among the coast line by about 3,000 Newfoundland fishermen and as’ many Eskimos. Scattered bands of «Montagnais Indians roam the interior, estimated at about 5,000 in all, who trap and chase deer’ and other animals. A few explorers who have journeyed through parts of this region have returned with-glowing accounts of its mineral and timber wealth, and now the tide of capitalistic interest is setting in that direction. Newfoundland governs the eastern slope and supplies the only convenient method of reaching the coast line; Canada controls the western half, whence no development is possible save by way of Hudson’s bay and strait. The most significant indication of the trend of com- mercial expansion as to Labrador is that A. P. Low of the Dominion geological survey, the only Canadian scientist familiar with the region, has been induced to resign his post to accept a place with a Philadelphia syndicate, at a ‘salary of $10,000 a year, to explore and locate mineral de- posits in the Labrador peninsula. The syndicate plans for operations on a large scale aiong the great rivers which seam the region, and looks for a big return on its invest- ment. Mr. Low and party are now on their way from Ottawa to this port, where they will join the mail steamer which runs from here along the Labrador coast during the summer months and which will convey them to the locality where their prospecting will be set on foot. This is not, however, the only expedition proceeding there this season. Mr. Clergue, of Ontario, who is inaugurating immense industrial enterprises in the northern part of the province, has arranged for the steamer Giencoe to take a large exploring party up through Hudson’s bay to deter- mine if a trade outlet by that waterway can be maintained successfully. He is now proposing to capitalize his several properties into a corporate concern with a stock list of $120,000,000, and if it can be shown that there is a marine route in this direction which will enable the company’s products to be shipped direct, it will considerably improve the _ pros- pects of the proposed corporation. His party will likely remain in the region until late in the fall so as to prospect the territory thoroughly. Mr. Whitney of the Sydney steel plant and others are also taking steps to prospect the more accessible parts of the country. Sa Tue vessel owners of Bremen unanimously adopted re- cently, a resolution that on July 1, 1902, the words used in giving orders for movements of the helm in the German Imperial navy shall be introduced into the mercantile marine, and that from now until that date the words “left” and “right” shall be put into practice in merchant vessels. In the Imperial navy the significance of these words of command are simply reversed, so that an order to “port’ means “turn the rudder and the ship’s bow to port.” To attempt immediately the adoption by the entire merchant marine of so radical a change would necessarily create a very great deal of confusion, but the words “left” and “right” which are in use by several of the German trans- Atlantic steamer lines, has worked satisfactorily, no casual- ty it is stated, having occurred attributable to a wrong inter- pretation of the word of command, during the ten years since the change was made. DIRECTIONS FOR ENTERING ERIE. LicHt-House EstTaBLisHMENT, Trento Districr. Burrato, N. Y., Atigust 12, 1¢o1. Vessels entering Erie harbor should range in on the red gas buoy No. 2 and the Pierhead light, keeping about 150 feet south of a line joining these two lights. This range to be kept until the Pierhead beacon is reached, then follow the mid-channel between the piers. The line as described is the center line of the 20-foot channel excavated last year. The old method of standing off the entrance and ranging in on the inner and outer pierhead lights is liable to cause vessels to go aground to the south of the channel. Vessels of deep draft leaving the harbor should go weil up the bay so as to get well straightened in the inner channel by the time they reach the inner gas buoy No. 8. Tuomas W. SYMONS. Major of Engineers, U. S. A., Engineer 1oth L. H. District. — Tne WEATHER FORECASTING BY ELECTRICITY. Tammasina, the Italian scientist, has adapted the receiv- ing apparatus used in wireless telegraphy of the Marconi type to follow the course of distant thunderstorms and even to forecast rainy weather 12 hours in advance. The apparatus consists essentially of a coherer with its vertical wire, an elctro-magnet, a dry cell, and a teiephone. Ex- periments were carried out at Geneva with this apparatus which was fully described before the Paris Academy of Sciences. When a storm was passing over, discharges were indicated by an electrical bell, the strengih or distance of the discharge being indicated by the vigor of the stroke of the bell. When the weather changed without a thunder- storm, a peculiar crackling was always.heard on the 'tel- ephone, and rain could be predicted by this means with great certainty 12 hours in advance. Tammasina considers that his apparatus would be of great use on ships at sea for predicting storms, and he is of opinion that it is much more reliable than the present instruments used for predicting the weather. 8 METEOROLOGICAL. At the June meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society of London a paper by Mr. F. Napier Denison, of Victoria, on “The Seismograph as a Sensitive Barometer” was read. A Milne seismograph was installed in 1808 at the Meteoro- logical Office, Victoria, and the author has since that time compared its movement with the changes of atmospheric pressure recorded by his “aerograph.” He finds that when the barometric pressure is high over the Pacific slope from British Columbia southward to California, while off the Pacific coast the barometer is comparatively low, the hori- zontal pendulum of the seismograph tends to move towards the eastward. This movement appears to be due to a dis- tortion of the earth’s surface, caused by the heavier air over the Pacific slope depressing the underlying land surface below its normal position, while on the other hand, the comparatively light air over the adjacent ocean tends to allow the sea and earth beneath to rise above its normal level. It has been found that when an extensive storm area is approaching from the westward, and often eighteen to twenty-four hours before the local barometer begins to fall, the pendulum of the seismograph swings steadily to the eastward, completely masking any diurnal fluctuations that might have existed, as the storm area approaches, and in the event of its being followed by an important high area, the pendulum will begin to swing towards the west- ward before it is possible to ascertain this area’s position on the current weather charts. OFFICE OF ENGINEER