He is equally opposed to Fulton's second plan of timber and earth for his embankment, and his reasons are, that the wash from the dashing of the waves would gradually remove the earth and expose the timber to the action of the salt-water worm, and decay from exposure to the weather, and thus the whole fabric be rendered worthless for the object in view.

He is equally opposed to the plan of Captain Bache, of a tide-lock at the inlet. "The scouring power of all the water that can flow out of a tide-lock does not seem sufficient to keep the outlet open. Every floodtide, and the ebb also, until the gates are opened, will bring a great deal of sand along the beach and leave it in the channel. The overflowing water, if able at first to remove all the sand, will carry it out into deeper water, where a part will be carried away and a part left to accumulate from day to day, and form a bar too distant to be removed by so small a cause, the small current from the lock losing its power by diffusion."

He objects to the plan of Mr. Gwynn, for the reason that the incessant play of the waves between high and low water in every wind and during high winds, the violent action of the breakers caused by the sloping sides, and extending for some distance below low water to the top of the embankment, would derange the stone revetinent directly and let it down in places; in others, loosen and remove the mud beneath the revetment. The effect of all this would be eventually to expose the logs and cause them to rot, the result being, in a few years, the demolition of the dam, and the total failure of the project to shut off the waters of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.

He then proposes a plan which, if ineffectual, will not exclude dams, which he prefers to be made of concrete. He proposes by excavation and dredging to reopen the inlet about 150 yards wide and 6 feet deep at the ordinary stage of the water, and at the proper time to run out a jettee of large stones or cubic masses of concrete, resting on grillages. of pine logs, on each side of the opening, giving to them and the exposed points the necessary protection. These operations, in his judgment, would give a harbor and channel of entrance for vessels drawing from 12 to 15 feet. He estimates the cost at $500,000, which, adding 75 per cent. on account of enhanced prices, would amount to $875,000.

Captain Woodbury, it would appear, on an appropriation by Congress of $50,000, commenced operations on his plan, and continued the same till the 13th of March, 1856, when Lieutenant W. II. C. Whiting, Corps of Engineers, was assigned to the work. Subsequently to this Lieutenant Whiting, with Brevet Lieutenant Colonel W. Turnbull, Corps of Topographical Engineers, inspected the operations together, and the following was the latter's report on the subject, which is so terse, and, as I think, pertinent in the matter, bating some errors of statement to be hereafter noted, I cannot refrain from extracting nearly the whole of it in his own language. The report was made to Colonel J. J. Abert, Chief of Corps of Topographical Engineers, September 1, 1857:

The subject of re-opening Roanoke Inlet has been reported upon by several engineers of distinction: first, by Mr. Fulton, an English engineer, employed by the State of North Carolina in 1820; second, by Captain Bache, Topographical Engineers, in 1829; and by Mr. Gwynn, a well-known civil engineer, employed by the State of North Carolina; and fourth, by Lieutenant Woodbury, Corps of Engineers, in 1853; all of whom agree in the necessity of building dams across Croatan Sound, which, according to Lieutenant Woodbury's report, is three miles over and averages 8 feet deep, with a greatest depth of 13 feet; another communication east of Roanoke Island, called Roanoke Sound, with a principal channel one-half mile over and averaging 4 feet

deep, and several smaller channels, abont three-fourths of a mile over and 1 foot deep; in addition to which are the marshes, 18 inches above ordinary level, one and threequarter miles, making the dam seven miles in length, for which the item of stone alone is estimated by Mr. Fulton at $2,40,000.

Lieutenant Woodbury proposes, first, to excavate a channel 150 yards wide, com mencing at 6 feet water in the sand, and continuing in the sand-banks, for which he estimates $105,500.

He then proposes to cut a canal 900 yards in length, 150 yards wide, and 6 feet deep, from the sand to the ocean, for which he estimates $40,500; the ocean-end of the canal to be protected by piers of masonry extending, respectively, one-half and oue-quarter of a mile into the sea, the estimate for which is $00,000, which makes, in all, $646,000, which added to the estimate of Mr. Fulton for the item of stone alone, makes $3,196,000, to which must be added other items of material, machinery, labor, contingencies, &c., which would, in my opinion, swell the estimate to $5,000,000.

Congress appropriated $50,000 to commence operations; $40,000 have been expended, and at this time there is scarcely a trace to be seen of what has been done, the drifting sand filling in the trench as fast as it was excavated by the dredging-machine. In fact, the machine was very near being imbedded in the sand, it filling up so rapidly behind it, but was gotten out in time to save it.

On my first visit to Nag's Head, in company with Lieutenant Whiting, of the Corps of Engineers, previously in charge of the work, I was perfectly satisfied of the entire impracticability of the scheme, and, in consequence, reported to the burean, recommending that the work should be abandoned and the machinery and other public property sold, which report was approved by the Hon. Secretary of War, and the property was sold on the 15th of August. On reference to the correspondence on this subject on file in the office here, I find that Lieutenant Whiting, of the Corps of Engineers, previously in charge of the work, a young gentleman of a high order of talent, sound judgment and discrimination, had frequently reported to his Department, expressing 'his want of faith in the plan adopted to make a communication between Albemarle Sound and the ocean, and also his doubts as to its practicability at all, short of an enormous expenditure, altogether disproportionate to the object." In his letter to General Totten, dated March 31, 1857, after referring to the fact of the excavation having filled, he remarks:

"By referring to my letter to you of September 3, 1856, you will see that the result was fully predicted and exposed by me. Never having had any faith at all in the success of the plan, with the means at hand, these appearances decided me to stop the work until I should hear from you. Any further prosecution with a single dredgeboat and the force available, I cannot but consider an unwarranted waste of public money."

In regard to the foregoing report of Colonel Turnbull, I would remark that he has fallen into an error representing Captain Woodbury as reporting the total length of the proposed dams across Croatan and Roanoke Sounds as seven miles. The total length, according to his report, now before me, is six miles. He has erred also in stating Mr. Fulton's estimate to have been $2,450,000. It was $2,363,483, and this includes dredging the channel and excavating the banks. He has also fallen into an error in the details and total amount of Lieutenant Woodbury's estimate, which should be $500,000, instead of $646,000. He has also erred in adding Lieutenant Woodbury's estimate for dredging and excavation to Mr. Fulton's estimate for his stone embankment, the latter already including the items of dredging and excavation. The true figures, therefore, would be, Fulton's estimate for stone embankment, including dredging, $2,363,483, plus Woodbury's estimate for piers and contingencies, $354,000; total, $2,717,483. But, as I have stated before, in my judgment the more proper way to arrive at the truth of Fulton's estimate of $2,363,483, at the present time, would be to increase it at least 100 per cent. on account of enhanced values, thus making it $4,726,966, to which should be added, as above, Lieutenant Woodbury's estimate for piers and contingencies, $354,000, plus 75 per cent. for increased values, making total probable cost of project, including stone embankments across Croatan and Roanoke Sounds, dredging of channel, excavating of banks, and piers of inlet, $5,345,966.

The report of Colonel Turnbull, giving as it does the experience of the

Engineer Department in the preliminary operations of re-opening Roanoke Inlet, should, it appears to me, without any further investigation, satisfy any reasonable mind that the whole project is impracticable. But, having been required by your instructions of July 23 last to make an examination or survey, and report on the subject, I will endeavor to fortify this position by the following considerations:

1st. That while Fulton and Gwynn report the practicability of the project, the board of engineers, to whom was submitted the plan of Fulton, express themselves as exceedingly doubtful on this point. They say, as before quoted, “in regard to the advantages resulting to the State if the design can be proved practicable and of permanent utility, the propriety of its abandonment or of its completion will depend chiefly, as respects the State, on the answer to this question."

2d. Captain Bache remarks, in relation to the feasibility of the plan of damming Croatan and Roanoke Sounds, and dredging out the old inlet, according to Fulton's plan," that no human foresight can predict the precise result of any operations of a similar character when the causes to be governed when known are so various and powerful;" and again, in relation to the cost, he remarks, "that the enormous amount of the cost of effecting the object, joined with a degree of doubt which hangs about the result of every operation of a similar nature, renders it highly probable it may never be carried into effect." He therefore devises a more economical plan-that of a tide-lock, to admit only of the passage of vessels bound outward, which Captain Woodbury, as I have before stated, believes impracticable for any remunerative purpose; and I cannot but concur in his views.

3d. Captain Woodbury proves that Fulton and Gwynn's plans would be ineffective; and resorted to dredging, with the use of protectingpiers at each end of the cut, as sufficient to open the inlet.

4th. From the report of Colonel Turnbull, above given, we learn that both he and Lieutenant Whiting had no faith in Captain Woodbury's plan, and the history of the operation shows that after Captain Woodbury had cut a trench through the sands on the Albemarle Sound side of the inlet, the two officers named inspected the same soon afterward, and could scarcely find a trace of it; and not only so, but that one of the dredges came near being lost by the sands filling in so rapidly behind it. The consequence was that Colonel Turnbull reported the whole project impracticable, and by direction of the honorable Secretary of War it was abandoned and the machinery and other property sold.

5th. Supposing that Fulton's plan of stone embankments across Croaton and Roanoke Sounds were carried out, with the dredging and pierwork, the cost at present valuations, as stated before, would most probably exceed $5,000,000, an amount of money greatly disproportioned to the advantages gained.

6th. In my tours of inspection of the construction of the new lighthouse at Cape Hatteras, I have several times crossed Albemarle, Croatan, and Pamlico Sounds, and have also taken soundings at the east end of Albemarle Sound, in Roanoke Sound, on the shoals, at the mouth of Roanoke Sound, and in Oregon Inlet, and have also examined the supposed site of Roanoke Inlet, and of Captain Woodbury's cut for the new inlet; and independent of the reasons given under the above five heads of the impracticability of the project, I believe the opening of Oregon Inlet, near the south end of Roanoke Sound, for the first time, September 8, 1846,* has so completely changed the topography

*Mr. John B. Etheridge, before referred to as living at Oregon Inlet, informs me that the breach now called Oregon Inlet occured September 8, 1846, and that he was the first man to cross it.

of that sound (not before adverted to by my predecessors) as to make the impracticability of re-opening Roanoke Inlet still more certain. The effect of the opening of Oregon Inlet has been, as the Coast Survey map shows, to narrow in five years, between 1846 and 1851, when the hydrography was made, the channel of Roanoke Sound, at the point where Fulton's Dam would cross it, from a width of one-half mile, with nine feet water, as reported by him, to a breadth of only oneeighth mile, and 8 feet of water. The reason of this has undoubtedly been on account of the shoaling of the water at the south end of the sound, caused by the meeting of the influx current of the ocean, through Oregon Inlet, with the southerly current through Roanoke Sound, this making a shoal, the effect of which has been in a manner to dam up this sound, and thus weaken the current to such a degree as to cause all the sediment which had before came down from Albermarle Sound, and freely passed through Roanoke into Pamlico Sound, to silt up and contract the channel of Roanoke. Sound. It has also been undoubtedly due to this cause that the water has shoaled to such a degree, as the Coast Survey maps show, at the foot or east end of Albemarle Sound. Now, suppose a channel dredged through these last shoals, auxilary to the re-opening of Roanoke Inlet, what would be most undoubtedly the effect after every western gale? Most assuredly the light sands of the shoals would be lifted from their resting place and carried along until they could find a lodgment in the new cut channel, and this operation would so invariably and frequently occur as to very rapidly efface every trace of the cut, just as was the case with the trench made by Captain Woodbury.

7th. Again, admitting that Congress should appropriate the largest sum estimated for the project, ($5,345,966,) and the work carried on with the utmost dispatch, it is very certain every westerly gale would fill the new-cut channel to such a degree as to make it an ever-recurring necessity to dredge it over again; and it is equally certain that on account of the exposed situation of the channel-piers, making them subject to the severest shocks and washings of the ocean, they, too, would require repairs to such an extent and so often as in all probability never to allow a channel to be of any practical use.

8th. For the above-mentioned reasons I respectfully submit that it would be an unwarrantable waste of the public money to apply it to any such object, and none, in my humble judgment, should be appropri ated by Congress for the purpose.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

J. H. SIMPSON,

Colonel Engineers and Bvt. Brig. Gen'l, U. S. A.

Brigadier General A. A. HUMPHREYS,

Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., Washington, D. C.

APPENDIX R.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1871. GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit, herewith, my annual reports for the year ending June 30, 1871, for the river and harbor improvements, surveys, &c., in my charge, viz: Delaware Breakwater Harbor; construction of pier at or near Lewes, Delaware; improving harbor at

Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania; improvement of Wilmington Harbor, Delaware; repairing the stone piers belonging to the United States in the harbor of New Castle, Delaware; clearing and buoying the channel of the Schuylkill River; Ice Harbor at Reedy Island, Delaware; removal of obstructions of Salem River, New Jersey; improvement of South River, New Jersey; improvement of the north and south branches of the Shrewsbury River, New Jersey; survey of Horseshoe Shoals, Delaware River, Pennsylvania; survey of Chester Harbor, Delaware River, Pennsylvania, and survey of Delaware River between Trenton and Bordentown.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. D. KURTZ,

Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers.

Brigadier General A. A. HUMPHREYS,

Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., Washington, D. C.

R 1.

DELAWARE BREAKWATER HARBOR.

The completion of this harbor, according to the original project, was reported in last year's annual report. This project was devised more than forty years ago.

It is the case here, as in many other Government works, buildings, and establishments, that the growth of the country has far exceeded the provision made for its probable wants. This harbor is quite too small for the accommodation of the vessels which now resort to it. Its position on the coast-line is admirable for the use it was designed to subserve, that of a harbor of refuge for vessels plying north and south along the Atlantic seaboard. It is situated just half-way from Sandy Hook Bay to the mouth of the Chesapeake, and vessels can enter it with very little deviation from their routes, and resume their voyages again with a minimum loss of time.

It is a national work in the highest sense. While the commerce of Philadelphia and of all the other ports in the Delaware resort to it, a great number of other vessels, coming from and bound to ports outside of the Delaware, avail themselves of it just as freely, and take refuge in it from any stress of weather which makes it prudent for them to seek a harbor for a season.

Last year's report shows that fifteen thousand vessels were recorded as visiting this harbor. Adding those entering and leaving without being noted, twenty or twenty-five thousand may be taken as the number that used the harbor during the year. Its present capacity is determined by the space that is sheltered by the breakwater proper. This is a straight line nearly half a mile long, and it may be taken as the diameter of the half circle behind it, the area of which will represent approximately the sheltered harbor. Northeastwardly of the breakwater is the ice-breaker structure, a quarter of a mile in length, but separated from the breakwater proper by a gap of nearly equal extent, through which the sea rolls in northeastwardly weather without hinderance. If the sea which now rolls through this gap were excluded, the diameter of the sheltered area would be about doubled, and that area would be increased to between three and four fold its present extent. This would add very greatly to the capacity of the harbor.