owners of the property off 417 to 425 Medford street, Charlestown, which is a solid-filled wharf extending 1,200 feet out to the pierhead line.

This property could be made useful for the discharge and receiving of merchandise if we had deeper water. There is at the present time a siding of the Boston and Maine Railroad extending the entire length of the wharf and another one in part.

Furthermore, we have in contemplation the locating upon this 4 acres of property some large manufacturing plant whose business demands water and rail connection, and a deeper channel would materially help us.

[May 19] It is difficult to state the number of tons of freight received at our particular property. We have cargoes of lumber and coal landed there, but necessarily in low-draft vessels.

At this time I am negotiating with a large concern who are contemplating taking our entire property, 4 acres, for the discharge, reshipment, and storage of coal, and the amount of business done would be from 200,000 to 300,000 tons per annum, and, naturally, the depth of the channel is an important consideration in our negotiations.

In your consideration of this subject we beg to remind you of the fact that the enlargement and development of a proper channel is a condition precedent to the development of the adjoining property.

If you will give us a proper chaunel of entrance in the Mystic River, we have faith that the property will develop sufficiently to prove the wisdom of its construction.

Cochrane Chemical Company, by its treasurer, after specifying the freight received by the company in 1904, amounting to 24,937

tons

I find that 4,481 tons of coal and 1,091 tons of pyrites arrived by rail from the Boston and Albany docks, where the vessels were obliged to discharge, being unable to reach our works on account of the depth of water. I feel confident that with the depth of the Mystic River increased to 21 or 22 feet we would receive a very much larger tonnage by water than under present conditions. Most of our raw materials now coming from the south and southwest by rail would be enabled to come direct to our works in vessels at a very material reduction in cost of transportation, to say nothing of our foreign business, all of which now has to either be lightered or else come forward by rail after discharging at railroad wharves in Boston Harbor, in either case at an approximate extra cost to us of 75 cents a ton.

It is stated by the Boston and Maine Railroad Company, through its president

I do not see that this company has any interest in deepening or widening the channel of the Mystic River above Chelsea Bridge, and if it were deepened to the upper limits of the city of Somerville I do not think there would be any shipment of freight, either inward or outward, by way of the river, that would add to the tonnage of the Boston and Maine Railroad. In other words, if the Mystic River is made navigable to the upper limits of the city of Somerville whatever beneficial results would accrue would be purely local and would not, in my judgment, connect themselves in any way with shipments over the Boston and Maine anywhere.

Of the 45,000 tons of freight received or shipped on the 21 miles of the river examined (exclusive of the 52,652 tons received and consumed by the Boston and Maine Railroad) 43 per cent (19,371) tons) were coal.

It appears, however, that coal is supplied and distributed to consumers in Somerville at the same price as in communities in Charlestown and Boston, fronting on deep water.

At Dunning's wharf, the only wharf on the water front of Somerville where coal is delivered and distributed for general consumption, and to which point the United States has provided a depth of 6 feet at mean low (15.8 feet at mean high) water, the amount of coal, (1,800 tons) delivered in 1904 was only 9 per cent of the amount

(19,665 tons) delivered during the same year at Medford, to which there is only a depth of 1.3 feet at mean low and about 11 feet at mean high water. In the same year the commerce in Malden River, amounting to 75,225 tons of coal, where there is a depth of only about 10.6 feet at mean high water, exceeded by 67 per cent the commerce (45,000 tons) of those localities on the river in whose interest the improvement is requested, and to which the channel at mean high water is 16 feet.

In view of the amount of freight carried through the shoaler channel to Medford and up the Malden River, it would seem that an unquestionable demand for the development of property, and increased depth along the 23 miles of the Mystic examined should be preceded and evidenced by a larger use of the depth of 16 feet at mean high water, which is now and has for some time past been available and which is adequate for barges of medium draft.

The increase in depth is variously requested by 5, 10, 15, or 16 feet, to 11, 16, 21, or 22 feet at mean low water. To obtain the depth of 16 feet at mean low water from the head of the authorized 25-foot channel up to the upper limits of the city of Somerville would require a very large amount of dredging; or to obtain the depth of 14 feet at the same stage 1 mile up to the Boston and Maine Railroad (eastern division) bridge, and thence 10 feet, 13 miles, up to the upper limits of the city of Somerville would require the dredging of about half as many cubic yards, at a cost with which the present commerce to be subserved or the present guaranties of its increase do not appear commensurate. From experience with the 25-foot channel dredged up to near the mouth of Island End River, it is believed that the expense of maintenance would not be large.

In my opinion Mystic River, to the upper limits of the city of Somerville, is not at this time worthy of improvement by the United States.

A report of a survey, with map, of the river above the Boston and Maine Railroad (eastern division) bridge is in the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1891, page 674.

BOARD OF ENGINEERS FOR RIVERS AND HARBORS,

Washington, D. C., July 12, 1905. Respectfully returned to the Chief of Engineers, United States

Army.

The Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors has carefully considered the within report of the district officer upon a preliminary examination of "Mystic River to the upper limits of the city of Somerville," and in connection therewith has reviewed the history of the improvements made upon this stream, as contained in the reports of the Chief of Engineers. The district officer extended an invitation

1

to those known to be interested in this improvement to submit to the Board such statements, facts, or aguments as they desired, bearing upon the necessity for the improvement. Several replies have been received in response to this invitation and have been duly considered. The section of river covered by the item in the law is being improved under two projects, one of July 13, 1892, which provides for a channel 100 feet wide and 6 feet deep at mean low water from the bridge of the western division of the Boston and Maine Railroad for a distance of about 1 mile up to the line between Somerville and Medford; the other, of March 3, 1899, provides for a channel 25 feet deep and 300 feet wide at mean low water for a length of 1.7 miles from the confluence with the Charles River to a point above Island End River. This leaves a distance of about 6,700 feet between the upper end of the 25-foot project and the lower end of the 6-foot project where no improvement has been authorized. On this stretch. the available depth at mean low water ranges from 6 to 8 feet, and the width from 120 to 800 feet. The parties in interest desire the enlargement of the present channel from the upper end of the 25-foot channel to the upper limits of the city at Somerville. This stretch embraces the section not under improvement and that covered by the 6-foot project. The depth desired is variously stated at from 11 to 25 feet at mean low water.

The commerce of the whole river in 1904 amounted to over 2,800,000 tons, of which amount about 192,500 tons went above the head of the 25-foot channel. It appears from the within report that of this latter amount only about 45,000 tons would be benefited by the proposed improvement. Of this 45,000 tons 19,000 tons are coal, and it is stated that the price of coal in Somerville is now the same as in Charlestown, where there is deep water. The principal commerce that would reap benefits from the proposed improvement is, therefore, in fact, but a little over 25,000 tons.

It appears that of the total commerce of the Mystic River above the upper end of the 25-foot project, 49 per cent is carried into the upper Mystic and into the Malden, a branch of the Mystic, where the projected depths are less than the actual depths now existing in the section under consideration. It is therefore believed that this section in its present condition is susceptible of carrying a much larger commerce than now exists.

Based on the evidence before it, the Board concurs in the opinion of the district officer that at present "Mystic River to the upper limits of the city of Somerville" is not worthy of further improvement by the United States.

59TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. J DOCUMENT 1st Session. No. 146.

SHALLOTTE RIVER, NORTH CAROLINA.

LETTER

FROM

THE SECRETARY OF WAR,

TRANSMITTING,

WITH A LETTER FROM THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, REPORT OF EXAMINATION OF SHALLOTTE RIVER, NORTH CAROLINA.

DECEMBER 11, 1905.—Referred to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors and ordered to be printed.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, December 8, 1905. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a letter from the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, dated December 5, 1905, together with copy of a report from Capt. R. P. Johnston, Corps of Engineers, dated August 22, 1905, of a preliminary examination of Shallotte River, North Carolina, from its mouth to the town of Shallotte, made by him in compliance with the provisions of the river and harbor

act of March 3, 1905.

Very respectfully,

WM. H. TAFT,

Secretary of War.

The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS,

Washington, December 5, 1905.

STR: I have the honor to submit herewith, for transmission to the Congress, a report dated August 22, 1905, by Capt. R. P. Johnston, river and harbor act of March 3, 1905, of Shallotte River, North CaroCorps of Engineers, upon preliminary examination authorized by the lina, from its mouth to the town of Shallotte.

Lieut. Col. James B. Quinn, Corps of Engineers, this stream is worthy In the opinion of the local officer and of the division engineer,