bethport (see sketch in Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1881, Part I, page 696), was advocated in order to check the deposits forming continually around the Stake Light. A careful examination of the annual reports and maps shows that the shoaling in this channel, considering the natural tendency to it caused by the meeting of tides and currents in it, is very small.

The channel does not appear to be shoaling, and appears to be of ample depth for existing commerce. Its width, however, is not quite sufficient at two points, one at the bend off the Stake Light, and the other just east of Shooter's Island.

When the large Raritan River tows, of from 25 to 50 canal-boats, 5 abreast, get to these points, if there are many other vessels passing, there is almost always delay and trouble, and the channel here ought to be widened by dredging.

The construction of the dikes may be deferred until it is absolutely certain that they are required.

By Act of Congress approved August 5, 1986, the sum of $15,000 was appropriated for this improvement, and bids were called for by public advertisement dated November 9, 1886, for dredging 70,000 cubic yards, more or less, from the channel east of Shooter's Island and around the turn at the Stake Light, so as to increase the channel width at these two points to a depth of 13 feet at mean low water.

These bids were all regarded as too high, and with the approval of the Chief of Engineers were rejected. As it was then too late in the season to begin work it was not again advertised until the following spring, the bids to be opened March 30, 1887.

Although the lowest bid was only 13 cents less than that of November 30, there seemed to be but little likelihood of getting better offers by advertising again. The bid was therefore accepted, and a contract was entered into with Thomas H. Benton, April 15, 1887, for dredging 45,000 cubic yards from the channel, the amount being limited by the price bid.

Work was begun May 23 and continued to the close of the fiscal year, during which time 31,261 cubic yards of material were removed from the channel, 22,603 from the east of Shooter's Island, and the remainder from the bend around the Stake Light on the north side of the channel.

The contract will be completed during the month of July.

The commerce of Staten Island Sound is large and important, as may be seen from the appended statement, and the present appropriation will not be sufficient to do all the necessary dredging.

Thirty thousand dollars are asked for to continue the improvement. This work is in the collection district of New York, which is the nearest port of entry. Nearest light-house, Bergen Point Light; nearest fort, Fort Tompkins. Amount of revenue from customs collected at the port of New York for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, $147,058,373.

Money statement.

Amount appropriated by act approved August 5, 1886.
July 1, 1887, amount expended during fiscal year, exclusive of
liabilities outstanding July 1, 1886..
July 1, 1887, outstanding liabilities..

$15,000.00

$2,251.85
10, 821.90

13,073.75

July 1, 1887, amount available......

1,926.25

Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project.....
Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1889
Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and
harbor acts of 1866 and 1867.

91, 000, 00 30,000.00

Abstract of proposals for dredging the channel between Staten Island and New Jersey opened November 30, 1886.

Abstract of proposals for dredging the channel between Staten Island and New Jersey, opened March 30, 1887.

Contract made with Thomas H. Benton, April 15, 1887, for dredging 45,000 cubic yards.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

The following statement concerning the commerce of the channel between Staten Island and New Jersey was prepared by Inspector Francis J. Rodgers, who has been employed for many years upon the works of public improvement in the vicinity of New York:

Amount of commerce and navigation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887. According to affidavits presented to the Board of Engineers for report on bridge across the Arthur Kill, and to written statements to the Committee on Commerce of the United States Senate, as published in the Congressional Record of May 21, 1886, which have been verified for the last fiscal year by Mr. Fred. Engle, iron shipper, Lehigh Valley Railroad; Mr. F. E. Seward, of the Coal Trade Journal; Mr. J. C. Cole, shipper, of

Elizabethport; Hon. D. C. Chase, superintendent of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Towing Line, and by Dr. A. C. Davis, shipping and terminal agent at South Amboy, the amount of traffic is as follows:

The leading articles of freight are coal, iron, oil, pottery, and brick clays and their manufactured articles, fertilizers, ores, and the cheaper and bulkier chemical products, together with a large amount of higher-class merchandise.

The heavier class of freight is carried in schooners, sloops, barges, and canal-boats, towed by steam-tugs of from 60 to 350 tons measured tonnage, the higher class being carried principally by 3 steamers plying between New York, Elizabethport, Perth Amboy, and New Brunswick.

It is impossible to classify and itemize this vast freight tonnage from the meager returns made by individuals and private corporations.

The effects of the work of improvement upon rates of freight, insurance, and competing routes of transportation are not appreciable.

The advantages to commerce and benefits to the community which will follow the completion of this work will be the employment of vessels of deeper draught, with less liability to delays on account of low water and grounding, thereby tending to a lower rate for towage.

E 14.

IMPROVEMENT OF RARITAN BAY, NEW JERSEY.

Raritan Bay forms the western part of the large triangular bay inclosed between Sandy Hook, the New Jersey shore, and Staten Island, the eastern part of which is commonly known to New Yorkers as the Lower Bay, as it lies just outside of or below New York Harbor, which is the name usually applied to the inner body of water on which the city of New York is situated.

The Raritan River flows into Raritan Bay at its extreme western end, passing between Perth Amboy and South Amboy; and Newark Bay is connected with it by the Arthur Kill or Staten Island Sound, which separates Staten Island, belonging to the State of New York, from New Jersey shore, and enters Raritan Bay at Perth Amboy.

The depth of the bay varies from 5 to 30 feet, decreasing gradually towards its western and southern shores.

The natural channel leading out of it, after passing the Great Beds Light at the junction of Staten Island Sound and the Raritan River, does not follow the middle of the bay, but hugs the Staten Island shore for about 4 miles to Seguine's Point, situated about half a mile east of Prince's Bay Light; thence it runs southeastwardly towards the inner point of Sandy Hook for about 2 miles, crossing a shoal which puts out from the Staten Island shore to the southward.

Previous to the survey made by the Government in 1880, 18 feet at mean low water could be carried from Perth Amboy to Great Beds

Light in the channel, while there was not less than 21 feet of water from Great Beds Light to Seguine's Point; but from Seguine's Point to deep water in the outer bay only 14 feet of water could be carried across the shoal.

The width of this shoal between the 21-foot curves was about 8,000 feet.

Through the middle of the bay south of this channel, that is, from Great Beds Light directly towards Sandy Hook, only 11 feet water could be carried over the shoals.

The above depths all refer to mean low water.

A survey of this bay was ordered in 1880, with the view of ascertain ing the practicability of securing a greater depth of water from the main ship-channel in the lower bay to the wharves at Perth Amboy, as vèssels were often much delayed in crossing the shoal east of Seguine's Point.

This survey was made under direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Michler, Corps of Engineers, in 1880, whose report will be found in the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1881, Part I, pages 717 to 719.

This report recommended dredging a channel 300 feet wide and 21 feet deep at mean low water from Seguine's Point southeastward to the deeper waters of the bay outside, requiring the removal of―

460,000 cubic yards of material, at 25 cents Contingencies

Total estimated cost

$115,000

11,500

126,500

Owing to the diminution of the velocity of the ebb current after leav ing Seguine's Point, and to its unfavorable direction, since it crosses the proposed channel at an angle of about 450, it was not expected that the dredged channel would remain permanently open; but as no other means of obtaining a permanent channel by diking, etc., was deemed practicable, the project was decided on and approved.

The mean rise and fall of the tide is the same in Raritan Bay as at Sandy Hook, namely, 4.8 feet.

The first appropriation made for this project was that of March 3, 1881, $50,000.

Under it the work of dredging was let to the Atlantic Dredging Company, at 28 cents per cubic yard, and operations were begun in October, 1881, and continued to June 17, 1882, in which time 166,346 cubic yards had been excavated, giving a channel through the shoals 21 feet deep and 105 feet wide.

Under date of August 2, 1882, a further appropriation of $50,000 was made.

The contract was again awarded to the Atlantic Dredging Company, at 22 cents per cubic yard, who carried on the work until October 31, 1883, by which time 202,226 cubic yards were excavated, increasing the width of the channel to 240 feet except at the western end, where for 2,000 feet it had a width of only 200 feet.

By act of July 5, 1884, $20,000 was appropriated for this work. The Atlantic Dredging Company was again the successful bidder, and a contract was entered into with it, at 16 cents per cubic yard. This contract was closed December 13, 1884. Under it 112,657 cubic yards of material were excavated, of which 2,403 cubic yards were not dumped where required, and were therefore not paid for.

The total amounts appropriated to June 30, 1884, amounted to:

With this amount a total of 481,329 cubic yards of material had been excavated from the channel.

It was believed, when dredging stopped, that a full width of 300 feet, 21 feet deep, had been obtained across the shoal; but no survey of the channel was possible up to May, 1885, when it was found that the side slopes of the cut had run into the channel, giving a clear depth of 21 feet for only 200 feet in the narrowest place and an average width of over 250 feet.

An examination made during the summer of 1886 showed that no material shoaling had taken place since the survey of May, 1885.

In the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1885, Part I, page 758, Colonel Gillespie, then in charge, estimated that to give this channel its full width of 300 feet would require the removal of 80,000 cubic yards of material.

The original project of 1881 contemplated the excavation of this channel only; but Colonel Gillespie in his annual reports of 1883, 1884, and 1885, calls attention to two other shoals in the bay west of Great Beds Light; one in the channel leading up to South Amboy, on the Raritan, and the other leading up to Perth Amboy on Staten Island Sound.

The shoal in the channel leading up to Perth Amboy is a middle ground, having a channel on each side of it, the eastern one being the best; but only from 17 to 19 feet of water can be carried through it at low water. It is also narrow in places and crooked.

Colonel Gillespie recommended, therefore, that a straight channel 300 feet wide and 21 feet deep should be dredged from deep water near Great Beds Light through the east end of this shoal to deep water at Ward's Point, opposite Perth Amboy. (Report of the Chief of Engineers, 1885, Part I, page 758.)

This, with the 21-foot channel dredged outside of Seguine's Point, would give a continuous 21-foot channel from the main ship-channel in New York Bay to the wharves at Perth Amboy.

The amount of material required to be removed was estimated to be 150,000 cubic yards.

On the same page of the same report Colonel Gillespie calls attention to a shoal lying between South Amboy and Great Beds Light, on which there is only 12 feet of water. And in order to give the large towboats running from New York up the Raritan sufficient water, he recommended the excavation of a channel through this shoal 4,500 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 15 feet deep. The amount of excavation required to dredge this channel he estimated at 150,000 cubic yards.

The cost of dredging these two channels and the 80,000 yards of the side slopes of the cut outside Seguine's Point he estimated at a total of $114,000.

No money was appropriated or work done during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886.

Navigation through the channel leading eastward from Seguine's Point is much easier and better than through the channels up to Perth and South Amboy, inside of the Great Beds Light.