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a tie SERVICE IN THE NAVY. iy a ‘The United States Navy is now enlisting men in such capacities as they are fitted for, for three. years. The quirements at the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N. Y., for + All applicants must pass a rigid physical examina- tion, especially as to eyesight, have good teeth and be : free from hereditary disease. Applicants over 18 and _ under 21 years of age can be enlisted with the legal consent of parents or guardians, You had better submit yourself to a careful physical examination by a medical man before applying. “For Landsmen—Men with no knowledge of sea life over 21 and under 25 years of age. If the applicant has a mechanical trade, the age limit is extended to 34 years. The pay is $16 per month. No examination except the physical for those having no trade. “For Ordinary Seamen—Heimust have been to sea at least two years and passian examination in reefing, steering, knotting and splicing, etc. The pay is $19 per month. For Seanien—He must have been to sea at least four _ years and pass a rigorous examination in seamanship. ‘The pay is $24 a month. For machinist—A candidate for machinist must be between 21 and 35 years of age, and must be able to = wtite legibly and understand enough arithmetic to ptoperly keep the steam log ; for this he must be able to work decimal fractions. He must preferably have served at least one year on a sea-going steamer, and must ‘thoroughly know the the names and uses of all parts of modern marine engines and boilers, and how to care for them and regulate their action under various conditions likely to occur in practice. He must be a good machin- ist and it is desirable that he should be able to do rough “placksmith’s and coppersmith’s work. The pay is $70 " per month. For ist Class Firemen—A candidate for 1st class fire- man must have had experience as a fireman on a steamer and must know about marine engines and boilers and their attachment. He must thoroughly understand the management of the fires, how to use and regulate the different valves on the boilers and the different pumps. He should know how to “put ona soft patch, be able to wrap pipes, to stop a leak. He must know how to pack the stuffing boxes around the engines and how to grind in valves, etc. He must also understand about oiling the working parts of an engine. The pay is $35 per month. For 2d Class Firemen—A candidate for 2d class fireman must have had experience asa fireman, preferably on board a steamer, and must understand the working of fires. He should know something of the engines, the different pumps, the boilers and the attach- ments to the boilers and their uses. The pay is $30 per month. “All rates are entitled to one ration per day, equal to $9 per month of 30 days.” a THE MARINE RECORD. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND TUNNEL TEST. ILLUSTRATED. It sometimes happens that an engineer by a simple, bold expedient revolutionizes certain engineering processes, and not only greatly reduces the cost of con- struction, but renders possible either a new class of work or develops a new phase of work in well known ST LAWRENCE 4, \t ' INCE ED Wann ‘LAND ATLANTIC OCEAN ROUTE OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND TUNNEL. lines, either of which could not have been successfully carried out by the old methods. Through the courtesy of the Scientific American we are enabled to present to our readers! the following descrip- tions and engravings of the work: “Examples of inventions of this class will occur to the reader, and we have now to add tothe list the record of an tunnel; but the Straits of Northumberland being per. petually stormy and the depth of the water being more than one hundred feet, the problem was not so simple as it might appear. . Our engraving illustrates the way in which the feat — was accomplished. The method and apparatus are the invention of Mr. Alfred Palmer, C. E., of the Mills building, New York. A four-inch wrought iron pipe made up of 20 foot lengths rests upon the bottom of the sea, and upon the upper end of this pipe, which reaches above the surface of the water, is arrangedaplatformon which is mounted an engine running at a high rate of speed. The pipe is trussed to make it rigid and it is sup- ported in an upright position by means of four wire ropes set out at right angles to heavy anchors. The engine drives a diamond drill at the rate of 1,000 revolutions per minute. A scow anchored near the pipe carries a 10 horse-power boiler and other necessary machinery, the boiler being connected with the drill engine on the upper end of the pipe by means of flexible tubing. Another flexible tube supplies water to the drill for lubricating purposes. By means of this arrangement __ the drill is always held ina vertical position, and is not subject to any vertical or lateral movement, although the scow carrying the boiler and pump may be tossing about in a heavy sea. The current in the channel offers a resistance to the pipe of 36 pounds to the square foot, but it is so thoroughly braced and stayed that it easily resists this pressure. The tests made indicate that the formation is highly favorable to tunnel construction. The contract for the tunnel is being carried out under the direction of the Dominion government, represented by Hon. George BE. Foster, Minister of Finance, Mr. Collingwood Schrieber, Chief Engineer, and Sir Douglas Fox, Consulting En- + gineer, of London. Mr. Alfred Palmer is reporting 5 engineer for Sir Douglas Fox.” : fy s THE BUREAU VERITAS CLASS. It is with some degree of interest we note that the cabalistic signs awarded by the Bureau Veritas in their classification of vessels is held in the highest repute by the San Francisco grain shippers and underwriters, to the, we may Say, general exclusion of the English Lloyds and other well known classification societies who survey and rate over-sea American sailing ships. We have now a list before us, printed by the Commercial News and Call, of San Frarcisco, con- -taining upwards of thirty large American ships, including the 3,400 ton ship ‘“‘Roanoke,”’ all classed by the Bureau Veritas 3.3. L, IL and 3.3, A II, on their way from New York and Philadelphia to San Francisco. From this classing of the fleet by the Bureau Veritas signs (an explanation of which was recently published in THE RECORD,) it is not to be supposed that the fleet do not hold a classification from other societies, but it is noteworthy that in soliciting so perishable an THE FUR-BEARING SEAL. The fur seal has been almost exterminated in the Antarctic regions and are now only to be oversea freight as California grain, the Veritas class should be held forth so prominently and undoubtedly as an inducement for shippers to charter at the best rates of insurance, and of found in the less frequented waters of the course this is done distinctively on the class ~ North Pacific Ocean, including the Alaska and its standing which the ship holds. Territory and Bering Sea. This was a com- ..Pletely isolated breeding place until the Russians began to make an inroad on the pre- serves, since which time the fur seal has been This society, founded in 1825, has become an international register of shipping of univer- — sal repute and it is gratifying to those who are — interested in the modern lake marine to find assiduously hunted and captured and the skins “shipped to London for preparation previously to being worn, The male seal reaches the breeding place in May and is shortly after- wards followed by the female, when the pup seals about a foot long and weighing from two and a half to four pounds are born. When E about four months old, or in August, the pups begin to move about, and by the end of Novem- ber are expert swimmers, migrating with the older seals to more Southern localities, but re- turning to the breeding places inthe following summer, much after the manner of salmon in the rivers of that region. June and July are the months when the seal hunters reap their harvests off the islands, but the young seals are not worth killing for their fur until they are at least three years old. It may not be generally known that the fur on a seal is hid under a coating of hair, like the down on geese is hid under the outside feathers, and anyone endeavoring to pluck the hair off a sealskin would think he was justly entitled to the skin for the time and labor spent in plucking it. The writer has had a practical experience of this hair-plucking business, and would not accept a carload of sealskins if they had to be plucked by hand. ED + o-oo ‘THE survey on the steamer Inter Ocean at Milwaukee has been completed. It foots up $4,200. that the fame of lake shipping has so stirred up | this and other classification societies that agents have been appointed to note the mari- a6 time enterprise and advancement of lake shipbuilding, owning and handling, and the — many calls for information on this and TESTING THE GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF THE PROPOSED ROUTE OF THE PRINCE EOWARD ISLAND TUNNEL. engineering feat which, in the boldness of its concep- tion, the simplicity of the devices by which it was exe- cuted, the success attained, as well as the bearing of the’ work on associated interests, will compare favorably with any engineering work of like magnitude. ‘The work contemplated was the construction of a tun- nel between Prince Edward island and New Brunswick, as shown on the annexed map, the distance being eight miles. The problem presented was that of testing the nature of the earth between the proposed termini of the = kindred subjects which Tum RECORD has = received from abroad bear ample testimony to the awakening of our distant friends to the importance of this now enormous industry. ‘The courteous and thoroughly qualified rep- resentative of the Bureau Veritas for the American Lake Department, is Captain F.D. _ Herriman, who as chief inspector for the entire — district will no doubt early enlighten the Veritas principals on the splendid strides t lake marine is now making towards construc- tive and equipment efficiency, and the perfec-— tion of class and designs for the special trade in which — our vessels are engaged. -_---™- LL THE propellor Point Abino made an unsuccessft attempt to reach Port Huron but returned to Sandusk on Friday, having encountered too much ice on the 1: to proceed, December 23 is rather late sailing tl season for ordinary tonnage, byt for vessels sheatl or ironed there was no ice on Lake Brie of sw weight to prevent them from reaching the rivers.