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THE MARINE RECORD. CHICAGO RIVER—A DIFFICULT PROBLEM. With the fall grain movement which is destined to be heavy and the rush of coal cargoes to stock up for the win- ter supply, the masters of vessels will need to exercise more than ordinary vigilance when frequenting Chicago. Those who have not been trading there or visited the port but seldom during the season will, of course, be fully in- formed regarding the effects of the current through the opening of the Chicago drainage canal. Other features which were brought forward earlier in the season are just of as much moment now, and will obtain to the close of navi- gation. It has been said, and without any desire to speak deroga- tory of the port, that, Chicagoriver is causing a great load of anxiety to the masters of large modern built craft. It is said, and whether with a desire to brace up the municipal officers or otherwise, we know not, that the laxity of the local administration is almost scandalous in its treatment of floating property; furthermore, marine men have spent time and money trying to encourage at least a step toward making some improvement of the conditions existing, though the city does not show the slightest disposition to respond. Bridges are allowed to fall to pieces, becoming not only a menace to the safety of navigation, but to public safety as well. These decaying structures are seldom—and some.of them never have been—repaired until a vessel does inevitable damage to them, and is compelled to pay the full - cost of the work done at city prices, which is little short of taking money away from a person with the aid of a sandbag. ‘Speaking of this an old lake captain who has sailed the lakes for two score of years, and is largely interested in vessel property trading out of Chicago, said recently: ‘‘It looks as though the city intends to make vessel owners pay for the improvement of the Chicago river. Bridge piers, and in fact, everything that comes under their jurisdiction that a boat can get near enough to injure, is allowed to fall apart so that the wash of even one of our small tugs passing at an ordinary speed will almost carry them away. We have to settle such bills or quit sailing here; itis shameful but we are powerless to change the conditions. It will beso, I presume, until the center pier bridges are abolished, and I do not think that will be while the present administration is in power. If they intend to do anything for us they are pretty long in beginning, and each year’s delay is driving business from Chicago. Owners and masters are bound to favor othér ports, and this will show more clearly two or three years hence.”’ ; or or on SEPTEMBER ASTRONOMICAL DATA. Astronomical data for September, 1901, furnished the MARINE RECORD by the Washburn observatory: The two most brilliant of the planets are now conspicuous in the evening sky. One of these, Venus, is seen in the west in the early evening. Mars may also be seen asa moderately bright and ruddy colored star low in the south- western sky inthe very early evening; and later in the month Mercury, having drawn eastward from the sun, will appear in the same region. The last named planet, how- ever, will not be favorably situated for observation. The other brilliant planet, Jupiter, is on the meridian far south © qwed by the less bright in the early eveuing. It is foll planet Saturn, a little east and north of Jupiter. The times of sunrise and sunset at Milwaukee for the month are as follows: : SUNRISE. SUNSET. Septeniber: Tiss, ore ot Hith cio a sens oder ae wees 6:28 September, Ti. ses fees eee Br 2 Osta suka aigiee ain) ph cas 6:10 September 20s soi sue sia FcR tae etal hitecaca eats 5:52 September 30................ BSA ee iavsn totais oeveis'a ira ait hs 5:36 The times of the moon’s phases are: Third quarter....... Sepremmbsre 5c vce hoes 7:27 a.m New Moon ......... September 12s. eee 3:18 p.m First quarter ....... September 2050505050 sls 7:33 p.m Full Moon ......... Septem ber!27. ).ccci5 esas 11:36 p.m during the month are: To the west, Arcturus and Vega; near the meridian, Altair; to the east, Regulus. oo or on Aw order has been issued by the British Admiralty which will have an important bearing on the quantity of timber consumed in Great Britain. It is to the effect that in the future construction of warships wood is to be used as little as possible. Thereare to be no wood decks, and the cabins are to be steel, lined wfth corticine.. This regulation is to apply to all ships which are at present being built, which are not too far advanced for the design to be altered by hay- ing the wood decks and other parts removed from them, _ OUR SHIPYARDS LAUDED. Prof. Ernest von Halle, special commissioner of the im- perial admiralty, after an extended investigation of the ship- yards of Great Britain, Germany, France, Holland and the United States, says, in his reportto the German govern- ment: “The shipyards of the Usited States are incomparably equipped for thorough, economical and rapid production. With the enormous expansion of trade, the time is not far distant when there will be shipyards in America at every important 6cean and lake point. The time is also not far distant when America will join Germany in occupying the same relation to the world’s vessel supply that has been held by England so long. Germany’s shipping needs are in excess while heretofore we have been supplied exclusively by English boatbuilders, it is distinctly probable that we will shortly go to the United States whenever there isa deficiency to be filled.” a oO QUEBEC VERSUS MONTREAL. Mr. William Macpherson, harbor commissioner at the port of Quebec, has addressed a letter to the Toronto Board of Trade, in which he points out that the employment of the largest steamers to make transportation cheap is the only salvation for the lake and river route to Europe. The Min- ister of Public Worksis putting forth the most strenuous efforts to make Montreal a harbor equal to all requirements} but Quebec is by nature the natural port of transshipment for the largest craft that pass through the canals. In the harbor of Quebec the largest steamers afloat can enter and swing at anchor with the greatest comfort. The steamer Great Eastern arrived in Quebec in 1860, and proceeded no SEPTEMBER -5, I9OI. — a RIPARIAN—LAKE—LOW WATER RIGHTS. The question of trespassing’ on’ laid abutting a navigable” river and owned by private persons, has long ago been settled to the satisfaction of all interested, or rather, the owners’ rights are well known tobe unassailable. As re- gards frontage on the lakes the matter has ‘become the sub- ject of litigation in several States and, more notably per- haps in Illinois and Ohio and at the)icities of Chicago and Cleveland within those States. The Supreme Court of the United States decided, in the lake front cases at Chicago, that the riparian rights of the Illinois Central Railroad amounted simply to a license to use the water front, that the land under the water belonged to the State of Illinois, and that the license granted by the Legislature of Illinois could be revoked. Relative to the foreshore rights on the sea coast itis generally accepted that the owners rights extend to the limit of low water, althought this has also been before the courts, and to the best of our belief, or remembrance, ruled upon adversely in one instance at least by the Pennsylvania courts and distinctly so in the case of ownership to the foreshore as held by other maritime countries. In numerous localities, where the coast line is low lying and where there is a large rise and fall of the tides an im- mense acreage is left bare at neap tides, which becomes navigable at full or flood tides, and this expanse of territory is placed specially under the control and jurisdiction of a department of the government. Appealed to recently regarding the rights of ownership by one of their patrons, the law firm of Messrs. White, Johnson, McCaslin & Cannon; Cleveland, state the law in the case to be as follows: ; MONTHLY SHIPBUILDING RETURNS. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF NAVIGATION, August 31, Igor. The Bureau of Navigation reports 142 vessels of 32,210 gross tons were built in the United States and officially num- © bered during the month of August, 1901, as follows: WOOD. STEEL. TOTAL..° SAIL STEAM. SAIL STEAM No. Gross. No. Gross. No Gross No. Gross No. Gross. 3 Atlantic and Gulf................ 66 10,941 18 1,437 I 235 | 2 4,839 87 17 452 PROM aca ors oce uy cee oteraela ais 4 1,627 7 PVT GBs Wit coverwrelia uggs wien ils aesertcnl iene arse II 2,785 Ghent WAKES eons cies e beara Ce ence oes Ieccta grt locqiagans) a aie 26 TT 20. ll cco ceilteeate sl ctetes 6 9,426 32 10,552 Western Rivers: ssc es Ges al iste cere I2 TAQ Tr eS Ey ea Gas cueny weve I2 1,421 Sees a RASS ———— Bee CORE, EY pees EE, | aa ee Sipediek stabaaaie as otale cites secon ies seve baie 70 12,568 63 5,142 I 235 8 14,265 142 32,210 The largest steel steam vessels included in these figures are: Colonel, 3,879 gross tons, built at Wyandotte, Mich., owned by Michigan Steamship Co. built at Newport News, Va., owned by Southern Pacific Co. owned by American Ship Building Co. El Dia, 4.613 gross tons, George W. Peavey, 4,997 gross tons, built at Cleveland, O., farther, proving beyond doubt that Quebec is the head of navigation for large tonnage. Such steamers as the Celtic, Oceanic, Deutschland, Ivernia, and Minneapolis could all float in Quebec, and such are the large steamers which in the near future must be employed in St. Lawrence trade.’ OO Oe REMOVING A REEF BY EXPLOSIVES. The blowing up of Arch Rock in San Francisco harbor is the greatest in the explosion line since the destruction of Hell Gate rocks, New York, by Col H. L. Abbott, U.S. A., in 1876. Thirty tons of nitro-glycerine were distributed in holes under the great rock and exploded. Photographs and triangulation by Lieut. Col. W. H. Heuer showed that the maximum height reached by the water was 466 feet. In the first Shag Rock explosion the column ascended 981 feet, in the second 1,106 feet. The Call reports that the specta- tors saw a mountain of tumbling waters, dotted here and there with debris, rising majestically hundreds of feet in the air where aninstant before had been a long flat platform shining in the midst of the sunlit, peaceful Strait. The waters had hardly subsided when scores of craft of every description headed for the scene of the upheaval. Pieces of timber were eagerly taken in as souvenirs, while boatmen did a lively business picking up dead fish. For acres and acres the waters were white with foain and strewn with de- bris. The deep reverberation came across the water to one’s ear only after the mountain of water had almost subsided. Its deep rumble gave a new impression of the depth of the disturbance, The tons of rock which were lifted far out of the water could not be so well seen as the scattering frag- ments of the demolished coffer. ~ en ‘Owners of lands bordering on the banks of any navigable water are absolute owners of the property extending to the low watermark and as such have absolute and sole control cver sich property. In addition to this there is annexed a right that is called riparian right, that is to say, a right and an exclusive right to extend or build out a dock to the point where the water becomes navigable. ‘‘There is no question of the ownership of the land under- lying the water until one signifies his ownership by building out a dock or other evidence of ownership to the point where the water becomes navigable. The ownership of the beach down to the low water mark is just as absolute as is the right to build a house on land that you own. The United States neither has nor claims any right on the beach above low water mark avd between low water mark and the point where low water begins. It claims and asserts no other right than the right to see that navigation is not unduly interfered with. Thus it follows that one has the same legal tight to keep trespassers off the beach that one has to keep trespassers off any other portion of his land.”’ rn ooo THERE will be a sale’of condemned material, etc., at the Navy Yard, New York, on Saturday, September 28. The list includes cutters, dinkies, sailing launches, whaleboats, a punt, four life boats and a life raft, railroad iron, slate, lumber, a typewriter, carpenters’ tools, furniture, engines, machinist’s tools, old books, pumps, copper wire, old flags, IIo, 520 pounds of shell, 47,980 pounds of steel, gun carriage, Lee rifles, revolvers, belts, bayonet scabbards, clothing and shoes. There are also in the collection knives, forks, table cloths, napkins, doilies, carpets, butter, flour and coffee, a number of musical instruments and electrical machinery.