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THE MARINE RECORD. —— ~ “BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record: The Sundry Civil Appropriation bill, as reported to the House last week, contains an item. of $200,000 for continu- ing the improvements ‘on Buffalo” harbor. The steamer C. W: Moore, recently bought by the Gra- ham & Morton line to ply between St. Joseph and Chicago, has been rebuilt during the past winter at Milwaukee. Among other things ten staterooms were added. The Mongomery Door & Box Co. has purchased the en- tire lumber, lath and shingle stock of the Clark, Swan Jackson Co., of Tonawanda. The sale comprises about 7,000,0co feet of lumber and the price paid 1s said to approximate $150,000, ,, A manager will be sent, to Tona- wanda to sell part of the lumber and. the rest will be brought to Buffalo to be disposed of. capacity fully one-third’ To provide for this increase the company has chartered the steel: steaniers Kennebec and Kanawha. The latter is*now nearing completion at Port Huron. The steamers Mereur and Packer, owned and operated by the company, will probably be put on the run between Escanaba and Lake Erie ports and sold later. Tt is understood that the Lake, Michigan & Lake Supe- ‘rior Transportation Co. will this year establish a 60-hour service between Chicago and. Duluth with the two freight and passenger boats Peerless and City, of Trayerse. The lessening of the time will be achieved by cutting out many of the stops that were heretofore made. The Osceolo and Jay Gould will make the local points and the, other two will conduct a through business. This line enjoys a good passenger business during the summer months and the year than ever before. : : Steamers operated by the Barry Bros. ‘Transportation Co. are to be equipped with a-system for wireless tel- egraphy and three exchange stations are to be established at Chicago, Milwaukee and. Marinette. The test is to be made early in April and if: successful equipment for the service will immediately be installed on the steamers Em- ‘pire and Badger State, which «will be on the West Shore run. ‘he company operates six steamers and the system is to be in use on all. It is expected’ that the steamers be- ing remodeled here will be ready for service April 18, and ‘the test will then be made. The Barry company will be ‘the first to install wireless telegraphy on Lake Michigan steamers. aera ped aNi dy } ‘The ferry boat used’ for communication between Buffalo and Fort Erie is said to bé very old, and assuredly is an “unattractive craft. Presumably it is sound enough for the business, else the Government. would not permit its ‘operation. But several occurrences have suggested the possibility of a disaster, against which proper provision is “not apparent. While crossing the Niagara river a few _ days ago, when a high wind prevailed, the boat was struck by an ice floe and made unmanageable by damage to the rudder. Immediately it began to drift down the stream, threatening collision with the piers of the international _ bridge, at which structure the ctirrent is extremely strong. Panic is said to have reigned among the passengers, but happily control of the boat was regained in time to avert a possible catastrophe. Several times this ferry steamer has been endangered in a precisely similar manner. ‘The ‘next time may not result so fortunately. It would seem only a reasonable and necessary precaution to. require the ferry company, when the ice is riinning: down the river, to have a tug with steam up stationed near the bridge, ready to give assistance if it. should, be needed. Such risks as that of Sunday are altogether too great. ship Co.’s four steel steamers, which ran between Chicago and Europe last season, will not come to the lakes again, at least not this season. They have been in the Atlantic coast trade since they left here last fall, plying between Fernandina, Fla, and Newport News, in the coal and ber trade. Charles’ Counselman, president of the com- , is very well satisfied with the showing made by the boats since they were taken from the Jakes, and has made : promoters dearly. Marine men held from the e boats would never pay on the route they were They are seaworthy enough and perhaps able The Iroquois Iron Co., of South: Chicago, which re- - ceived 200,coo tons of ore last season, has: jnereased its - prospects at present are they will have more offered this It is now pretty certain that’ the Northwestern St#am- to withstand the’ most ‘trying weather. “These qualities have been thoroughly tested on the coast during the past winter. They are fast enough, too, but the drawback lies in the fact that they cannot be loaded deeply enough for harbors on the lakes. The boats are too heavy. With a full cargo they draw 21.10 feet, of water, a depth which is to be found in very few harbors’ on the-lakes, especially at this port, where vessels in ‘the grain and coal trade=find it difficult to operate on seventeen feet draught in’ the river. The big boats have had é€very advantage “in, the Southern trade, particularly in handling cotton. They are handy and can load’ sticlt a cargo in one-fourth the time it takes the ordinary traders at those ports to do the work, and. big money is to be made.at the rates paid. They gét’ plenty of business, as they can take it cheaper for these reasons than the others. The side ports with which each of the boats are provided make rapid dispatch possible, and they are also equipped with hatches, which are used exclusively by the ordinary ocean coaster in hoisting cargoes out of the hold. DETROIT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The Hecla Cement & Coal Co. has commenced dredging a slip 1,400 feet long and 150 feet wide at West Bay City. It will be deep enough to accommodate all lake boats and will be equipped with modern appliances for loading coal into vessels. , Capt. James Davidson, who bought the steamer Homer Warren. and barge Ida Keith at auction recently, has sold both boats to Shannon & Carey, of Saginaw, Mich., and they will be run in the lumber trade between Georgian Bay, Bay City and Saginaw. A vesselman, who claims to know, says that Capt. Davidson simply acted as the agent for Shannon & Carey in the purchase of these two: vessels. Capt. Anthony May has spent about $2,800 repairing the little freighter Emerald that drifted on Lake Huron last November with nothing to keep her afloat but her cargo of cedar poles. He says he will run her to Lake Superior April 10, in the lumber trade, and he believes her as. safe as any big steel ship on the lakes. He says the same crew that hung onto the boat all night will be ready: to ship again this season. “The steamer Bransford, building for W. A. Hawgood & Co., Cleveland, was launched at the Bay City yard of the American Ship Building’ Co. Wednesday afternoon. The Bransford will come out May 1. She is 434 feet over all, 414 feet keel, 50 feet beam and 28 feet deep. She will have triple expansion engines, with cylinders 22, 35 and s58:inches, with 40 inch stroke. She will have two Scotch boilers, which will be fitted with the Ellis & Eaves’ draft. The Bransford will carry about 6,200 and will cost $260,000 The Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill reported to the House last week by the House committee on appropria- tions, contains the following items: For completing reve- nue cutter for St. Mary’s river, $37,500; for work on De- troit river channel improvements heretofore authorized and in excess of amount carried in River and Harbor Bill, $135,500; for work on Hay Lake channel on improvements heretofore authorized and aside from river and harbor appropriation item, $144,115; for range lights on channels where same cannot be maintained from American side, $14,000. Senator McMillan has made a favorable report, by direction of the committee on fisheries, on the bill to au- thorize the establishment of the biological station on the Great Lakes at some point in Illinois, Michigan, Wiscon- sin, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania or New York. ‘The selection of the place where the station will be established is left to the fish commissioner. In his report Senator McMillan says: “The important commercial fisheries carried in these waters warant the establishment of a lab- -oratory at which the various biologic-economic problems connected with the prosecution and development of the fisheries may be studied. Such a station would be a val- uable adjunct to the fish cultural work carried on by the government and the various states.” The plan of the government to build its own dredges and which is embodied in a bill which has already passed the House of Representatives, does not meet with favor among the dredging companies on the lakes, and they have taken steps to block the measure in the Senate. The dredge men will oppose the bill’ for three reasons. First, from the standpoint that it is unwise and not economical; second, that it is unnecessary on account of the excess of private equipment that can be had at low rates; and third, that it is an unjust invasion of a private industry and con- trary to the American spirit. : Signs of activity were visible all along Detroit’s water ‘front this week. At the Oades’ ship yard the Clergue yacht Siesta come off the ways, after being rebuilt at a cost of about $10,000. She will leave for the “Soo” in about two weeks. ‘The work on the D. & B. line steamers, Eastern States and Western States, has been pushed rap- idly and the interior work is all that is left to ‘be done. The Eastern States is expected to be ready for her trial trip about the middle of May. The two big C. & B. line steamers have been put into shape so as to start, but the ice conditions are such at the eastern end of Lake Erie, ‘do you think of that? _ Special. Correspondence to The Marine Record: ~deep below in the gravels, which form the bed of APRIL they will probably not leave the Detroit dry-dock y. a week’or ten days. The City of Erie still has the b: at her {mastheads aS a reminder of her victory o Tashmoo. : Secretary Harry Barter, of the International - shoremen’s Association, recently received an appl for membership in the I. L. A. from 50 Spanish workers of the city of Ponce, Porto Rico. “Talk the new subjects of the United States not being gressive!” said. Mr. Barter, smiling with pleasure. And that isn’t all. This i Second one. . We granted a charter to the dock wo San Juan about a month ago, and there are more ap cations coming.” It seems improbable that mens away could reap any benefit from belonging to an associ tion so distinctly a feature of the commerce of the Gr Lakes, but Mr. Barter says that they at present get ¢ to and 12 cents an hour, and the Longshoremen’s ciation will be able to make contracts for them with New York vesselmen at 15 cents at once, and can do bett later on. Copies of the Jaws of the I. L. A., transl into Spanish, are to be sent to Porto Rico with the ter that goes to Ponce. : OO CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. From present indications. the Scherzer "Rolling L Bridge Co. will likely receive the contract for a new bridge to be built at Saginaw, Mich,, shortly. f After submitting the matter to a referendum vote of the branches around the lakes, the Seamen’s Union has d cided not to demand any advance over the wage s paid to sailors on schooners and tow barges last seaso The men on sailing vessels will receive $2 per day those on barges and steamers $45 a month. With la winter's big cut of lumber to be transported to mark insuring good freight rates, and with no trouble in sigh with the seamen or dock laborers, the prospects of a profi able season for the constantly diminishing fleet of sailing — vessels are brighter than for several years. Secretary — William Penje, of the local branch of the Seamen’s union, reports that.the resolution adopted by that organization allowing deckhands on steamboats to become membe has been very well received by the latter and they are joining in large numbers. ‘The broadening of the scope of the union is not with the idea of raising wages, but to endeavor to secure a better lot of men on the boats. Fo merly steamboat captains have taken almost any men off the docks to serve as deck hands, and it is the aim of the union to provide competent sailors for the positions. ro oo or PORT HURON. During the coming season the steamer Bielman, sold by the Stewart Transportation Co. to Port Huron parties, will tow the schooner Mary E. McLachlan. Capt. J. W. Mont gomery will command the Beilman, and Capt. Maitlan will sail the McLachlan. It is understood that the Jenks Ship Building Co. has been negotiating for some time past for a site below the city limits and just east of Ravenswood on St. Clair river. Tt is said that options on all of the land with the exception of one small piece has been obtained. : OO SO OS A DISAPPEARING RIVER. A recent report from C. ‘I. Prall, one of the hydrogr. phers of the survey, has reported the existence of a strea whose waters in the summer season entirely vanish mi way in its course. ‘The river is known as the Dry F a smail stream in Northwestern Utah, tributary to As! creek. About fourteen miles from its source in } Uinta mountain this stream reaches a-large basin or si whose walls are from 75 to 100 feet high, except on the stream side. The pool is apparently bottomless and water in it revolves with a slow circular motion, cat either by the incoming waters or by the suction from low, or both. The only visible outlet to this pool narrow rock channel from which a little water flow is soon lost ‘to sight a few hundred yards below. © measurement of the main stream just above the ] showed a volume of 96 cubic, feet of water passing | second, but this entire flow disappears in the basin and stream for miles below is perfectly dry. About s miles below this interesting pool were found sev springs, one of them in a large hole twenty-five feet diameter and twenty feet deep, which at times are é and again filled with water. It is thought that the w which disappears in the upper pool flows undergrot stream, andin times of heavy rainfall appears again in large springs below. - ; i ER i _-_—_——— Tue Curicaco Pneumatic Toor, Co., Monadnock bk Chicago, will move into larger offices in the Fisher bu ing, May 1. The company’s sales in January were lar in advance of the monthly sales in 1901; those of ruary exceeded those of the previous month, and the for March showed a good increase over those fo preceding month in the year.