The following statistics relative to commerce of South River during the past year were kindly furnished by Mr. J. H. Conger, of New Brunswick, N. J.: In its original condition the stream was obstructed at its mouth by a sand-bar, on which the best depth was 1 foot at mean low water; for about 1 mile of its length the channel had a depth of 6 feet, but the remainder had generally a depth of 3 feet and less. The range of the tide is 5.1 feet. Five hundred and forty-six small vessels passed the draw at the mouth of the creek in 1878. The project for this improvement was adopted in 1879, and provides for obtaining by dredging and diking a channel 5 feet deep at mean low water, and 200 feet wide at the mouth of the creek, and 4 feet deep, with a width of from 100 to 50 feet to the head of navigation at Whitehead's Dock, 3 miles from the mouth. The amount expended under this project to June 30, 1886, was $40,000; the least depth in the improved channel at the mouth was 4.5 feet at mean low water; no work had been done on the shoals above, and no increase in the commerce of the creek had been observed. There have been no funds available during the year ending June 30, 1887, and no expenditures. The condition of the creek and its traffic remain substantially unchanged. If it is the intention of Congress to complete this improvement, the sum of $25,000 can be expended profitably as regards the efficient prosecution of the work during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, and it would be expended in dredging; a slight increase in the commerce of the creek might be expected. The estimated amount required for the entire and permanent completion of the improvement is $50,000. This work is in the collection district of Perth Amboy N. J. Nearest port of entry, Perth Amboy, N. J.: nearest light-house, Great Beds Light, in Raritan Bay; nearest fort, fort at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Amount of revenue collected at the port of Perth Amboy during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, $148,637.36. Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project $50,000.00 Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1889 25,000.00 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867. F 8. IMPROVEMENT OF KEYPORT HARBOR, NEW JERSEY. Keyport Harbor was originally accessible at low water only to vessels drawing less than 4 feet. Before its improvement was undertaken by the United States a 6-foot channel had been dredged at private expense, which had shoaled in 1872 to 5 feet, and in 1882 to 5 feet, the range of the tide being 4.7 feet. A large commerce was carried on, however, valued at $2,932,000. The project for the improvement was adopted in 1873, and provided for dredging a channel 4,700 feet long, 8 feet deep at mean low water, and 200 feet wide from the steam-boat dock to the 8-foot contour in Raritan Bay, at an estimated cost of $30,475. The amount expended under this project to June 30, 1886, was $29,523.01, with which a channel had been dredged from the S-foot depth in Raritan Bay to Keyport Wharf, a distance of 5,000 feet, with a width of 200 feet for the first 4,200 feet and 160 feet for the remainder. The commerce of the harbor had increased greatly, being estimated at $5,000,000, besides 150,000 passengers carried annually. There has been no appropriation for this work since 1882, and the expenditures for the last fiscal year have amounted to $497.50 for an examination made for the last Annual Report. The dredged channel is stated to have shoaled in places to about 6 feet mean low water, but it is reported that the commerce as yet shows no falling off. If it is the intention of Congress to complete this improvement, the balance of the estimate, $10,000, can be expended profitably as regards the efficient prosecution of the work during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, and would be applied to dredging the channel to the dimensions required by the project, which would add materially to existing facilities. The estimated amount required for the entire and permanent completion of the improvement is $10,000. This work is in the collection district of Perth Amboy, N. J., which is the nearest port of entry; nearest light-house, Great Beds Light, in Raritan Bay; nearest fort, fort at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Amount of revenue collected at the port of Perth Amboy during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, $148,637.36. July 1, 1886, amount available $951.99 July 1, 1887, amount expended during fiscal year, exclusive of liabilities outstanding July 1, 1886.. 497.50 July 1, 1887, amount available 454.49 Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project. $10,000,00 F 9. IMPROVEMENT OF MATTAWAN CREEK, NEW JERSEY. Before its improvement by the Government this small stream was obstructed at its entrance into Keyport Harbor by a mud flat on which the best depth at the worst section was 3.1 feet at mean low water, though the 3-foot channel was too narrow and tortuous for use. Above this flat a good 4-foot channel existed to 13 miles above the mouth, and thence to the steam-boat dock at Mattawan 3.5 feet, shoaling to 1.8 feet at the freight dock 600 feet above, and 17 miles from the mouth. The range of the tide is 4.7 feet. Notwithstanding the above difficulties it carried commerce valued in 1880 at $800,000. The project for the improvement was adopted in 1881, and provides for dredging a channel 4 feet deep at mean low water, and 100 feet wide from the mouth to Winkson Creek, and thence 75 feet wide to the raiload bridge at Mattawan, 250 feet above the freight dock, at an esti mated cost f $33,120. TT 30, 1886, the amount expended under this project was $21,000, with which a channel had been dredged, giving the required depth, from the mouth to the freight dock at Mattawan, with widths varying from 100 to 30 feet. The estimated value of the commerce of the creek had increased to over $2,000,000 in 1885, amounting to 130,000 tons. There has been no appropriation for this stream since 1882; there were no funds available for the past fiscal year, and there have been no expenditures. The condition of the stream has deteriorated since work was suspended, and complaints are made of shoaling at the mouth of the river. There has been no increase in the amount of commerce reported above, which is already very large in proportion to the size of the stream. If it is the intention of Congress to complete this improvement, the balance of the estimate, $12,120, can be expended profitably, as regards the efficient prosecution of the work, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, and would be applied to dredging the channel to the dimensions required by the project, which would add materially to existing facilities. The estimated amount required for the entire and permanent completion of the improvement is $12,120. This work is in the collection district of Perth Amboy, N. J., which is the nearest port of entry; nearest light-house, Great Beds Light, in Raritan Bay; nearest fort, fort at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Amount of revenue collected at the port of Perth Amboy, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, $148,637.36. Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project.. F 10. IMPROVEMENT OF SHREWSBURY RIVER, NEW JERSEY. The project for this improvement was adopted in 1879, and contemplates the formation of a channel 6 feet deep at mean low water, and from 300 to 150 feet in width, from the mouth of the river to Red Bank on the North Branch 8 miles, and to Branchport on the South Branch, 9 miles. In its original condition the river was much obstructed by sand-bars, on which the best depths at mean low water were, at the mouth, 3.9'; below Highlands Bridge, 5.4'; at Lower Rocky Point, 3.6'; at Barley Point, 3.2; at Chalmers, 5'; at Oceanic, 5.5'; below Bellevue, 3.1'; at Seabright Bridge, 4.2'; at Jumping Point, 2.6'; at Sedge Island, 2.8′. A survey completed in April, 1887, shows the depths at these points to be 5.9', 5.9', 7.7', 3.6', 7.8', 7.2', 4.5', 7.2′, 5.9', 4.4', respectively. This improvement was in charge of Lieut. Col. Walter McFarland, Corps of Engineers, until December 23, 1886. There had been no work done since October, 1883, there having been no funds available. No work could be done on the river during the winter, but early in March a survey was begun with a view to determining what changes had taken place since the work was suspended, and the best disposition that could be made of the appropriation of $10,000 included in the act of August 5, 1886. The survey was much delayed by unsettled weather, and it was not completed until April 23 at a cost of $812.88. This survey showed that the channel dredged across the bar at the mouth of the river had been maintained by Dike B in excellent order; that the currents are scouring along the dike and across the bar with great activity, and that, notwithstanding the fact that the vast quantities of sand carried down by them have advanced the bar several hundred feet into the deep water of Sandy Hook Bay, the indications are that the mouth of the river is steadily improving under the influence of the dike. The scour along the face of the dike was in some places so great that the feet of the piles had almost been reached, and the dike was in imminent danger of being undermined and destroyed; the currents had washed the sand from between the piles beneath the stone filling, allowing the latter to settle in some cases several feet. To arrest this action the face of the dike was riprapped in May and June for a distance of 1,357 feet to the level of 2 feet below mean low water, requiring 1,025 cubic yards of stone; and 257 cubic yards were put into the dike at the points where the filling had settled the most. These repairs cost $1,270.15. The dredged channel across the shoal below Highlands Bridge was found in good order, as also those at Lower Rocky Point, Oceanic, and Chalmers, though the latter is no longer available on account of the complete obliteration of the dredged channel at Barley Point. This latter channel was dredged in 1881 and again in 1883, and though 57,000 cubic yards have been removed from it it is now practically as bad as it was originally. This shoaling is believed to be due to the fact that the strength of the ebb tide does not flow through the improved channel, but goes down the deep channel on the north side of the shoal, aud that the flood tide, which maintains a good channel to just below Barley Point, is not able to do so above on account of a large portion escaping through the cross-over into the northerly channel. While this difficulty could be met by the construction of a submerged dike across this latter channel at some point above, there would still remain a large amount of dredging to be done. It was therefore recommended as more economical, in a project submitted to the Chief of Engineers June 27, which has since been approved, to abandon the Barley Point Channel and adopt the cross-over channel for future improvement. The survey of April shows this cross-over in fairly good condition, a navigable though difficult 5-foot channel existing. The shoal to the east of it is rapidly cutting away, however, and this process, if permitted to continue, will certainly cause a deterioration of the cross-over channel. It is therefore proposed to construct a stone dike 600 feet long to protect the head of the shoal, with a prolongation of 200 feet into the deep water of the north channel, designed to guide a portion of the ebb current into the cross-over channel. It will probably not be necessary to raise this dike above low water. This addition to the original project is estimated to add $4,025 to its cost. The channel across the shoal below Bellevue has also failed to maintain itself. It was dredged in, 1881, and again in 1883, 41,215 cubic yards having been removed. It has now shoaled to 4.5 feet, mean low water, and the steam-boats navigating the river can not pass it at low tide. 4 The shoaling of this channel was reported on June 27, and the construction of Dike C, in prolongation of Dike C1, about 1,300 feet long and to the height of about 1 foot above mean low water, has been approved by the Chief of Engineers, at an additional cost to the original project of $6,037. A systematic set of tidal observations is being made which will explain the interference of the tides at the junction of the two branches of the river to which the shoaling of the channel is believed to be due. The range of the tide is nearly twice as great in the North Branch as in the South Branch, and the latter tide is retarded much more than the former. It follows that at certain stages of the tide while the current is running down the North Branch the level up the South Branch is much lower, and consequently the ebb current sweeps around the head of the dikes, across the dredged channel, and up the South Branch; while at a later stage a portion of the ebb of the South Branch discharges up the North Branch. These cross currents have scoured a secondary channel around the dike of nearly, if not quite, the same dimensions as the main channel of the South Branch, which not only robs the latter of a large portion of the water that should help in keeping it open, but admits large quantities of sand, which are carried down by the currents of the North Branch from the shoal on its southerly margin and dropped in the sluggish waters of the South Branch. The height of about 1 foot above mean low water will probably be sufficient for the dike, as at high water the surface waters from the North Branch, which will be nearly free from sand, will assist in filling the large tidal basin in the South Branch, whereas the tendency of the ebb waters of the latter to escape up the North Branch will not occur until the level has fallen below the top of the dike. A considerable preponderance will therefore be given to the ebb current in the channel, which in the present choked condition of the South Branch is very desirable. As the dike is to be built of stone its height can be increased economically at any time that there may appear to be any advantage in doing so. |