the machinery and accessories of the canal, and in making new machinery and tools; the laborers, in passing and docking boats and in general work; the mud scows have been enlarged and thoroughly repaired; the tug-boat Walker Morris completely rebuilt and improved. One dredge has been thoroughly repaired and improved. A machine-shop, with machinery and labor-saving apparatus, has been erected, a fire-cistern has been built, a telegraph-line has been constructed, and osage-orange hedge planted along the canal. A loan of $50,000, to be repaid from time to time as the surplus of tolls will warrant, is needed for this work. Cash on hand July 1, 1876.......... $28,017 19 (See Appendix Q 2.) IMPROVEMENT OF THE OHIO, MONONGAHELA, AND WABASH RIVERS. Officer in charge Maj. W. E. Merrill, Corps of Engineers, having under his immediate orders Lieut. F. A. Mahan, Corps of Engineers. 1. Improvement of the Ohio River.-The contracts outstanding at the end of the last fiscal year were for the extension of the French Island dike; the completion of the dike at Evansville; the completion of a dike at Henderson Island, and the construction of a dam at the same place. The French Island dike has been extended 1,518 feet, making a total length of 3,498 feet, or two-thirds of a mile. The result thus far has been quite satisfactory. Very little was done at the Evansville dike beyond repairing damages and stopping a threatened scour below the shore-end. The flood of August so reduced the working-season that no work could be done on the proposed extension of 500 feet. The dike has done excellent service, and it is believed that when extended as proposed the Evansville bar will be entirely removed. Its present length is 1,525 feet. The dike at Henderson Island has been completed, its total length being 1,900 feet. It has had an excellent effect on the bar on which it is built, but it has but little effect on the bar at the foot of the island, and it will probably be necessary to build another dike about 4,000 feet below the present one in order to remove this obstruction. The dam behind Henderson Island has been repaired and completed. Its length is 620 feet, and its width 50 feet. It has fully accomplished its object of forcing all the water, at stages below 6 feet, to pass alongside of the dike. The snag-boat E. A. Woodruff has been completed and put in commission. From the 8th to 30th of June, she had removed 123 snags and 2 wrecks, and is still at work doing good service to Ohio River com merce. The Government dredges Ohio and Oswego have been in constant service, except during the months of ice and high water. During the fiscal year they have dredged the following from the channel: Saw Mill Run Brunót's Island Deadman's Island White's Bar.. Hay's Bar.. Deadman's Island Raccoon Island.... Total. Cubic yards. 19, 201 25, 173 22, 807 8,329 29,961 15, 330 6,940 127,741 The average cost per cubic yard during the year 1875 was 17 cents. The dredges also removed from the channel 11 wrecks and 6 snags. Forty-three snags and one rock-heap were removed by special contract during the autumn of 1875, before the snag-boat was completed. During the fiscal year two contracts were made for the removal of wrecks in the Lower Ohio. One contractor failed to procure bondsmen, and did no work. The other, at the close of the fiscal year, had removed 3 wrecks, and since June 30, he has completed his contract. No work was done on the first movable dam on the Ohio, (for which $100,000 was allotted,) because the legislature of Pennsylvania failed to pass an act giving cession of jurisdiction and power to condemn the necessary land. The report contains an account of the steps taken to secure the required legislation. For the report of the board of engineer officers convened to examine and report upon and which adopted the plan and location of this dam, as proposed by Major Merrill, see Appendix R 2. During the early part of 1876 Lieutenant Mahan, whilst on leave of absence, made a special examination of the various movable dams now in operation in France. In consequence of the information he obtained, (see Appendix R 1,) and of information from other sources, it is now proposed by the officer in charge to replace the maneuvering-boat by a service bridge, and to crown the high wier with a Poirée dam, using either needles or the gates invented by M. Boulé, as may be subsequently determined. A new estimate for this dam is therefore submitted by Major Merrill. Its total cost, including the dam behind Davis Island, is put at $465,000, of which $99,845 is now on hand. The removal of the dam at Cumberland Island is strongly recommended by the officer in charge, on the ground that it is a serious injury to the navigation of the Ohio, and that the reasons that originally caused its construction no longer exist. The officer in charge submits the following estimate for the fiscal year 1877-'78: A translation from the Annales des ponts et chaussées, containing a full account of the modification in the needle-dams invented by M. Boulé, accompanies this report as Appendix R 3. Amount available July 1, 1875 .$274, 611 40 157,590 45 175,000 00 Amount expended during fiscal year ending June 30, 1876.. 2. Improvement of the Monongahela River.-The work on this river consists in completing lock and dam No. 9 at Hoard's Rocks, West Virginia, ninety-four miles above Pittsburgh, and eight and a half miles below Morgantown. The lock has been finished except the miter and lift walls, which were not embraced in the contract. For reasons set forth at length in the report of the officer in charge, an additional appropriation of $20,000 will be required to complete this lock and dam. Estimate for the fiscal year 1877-'78. For completion of lock and dam at Hoard's Rocks.... $20,000 00 60,000 00 Total amount required...... 80,000 00 Amount available July 1, 1875 . 101,286 09 Amount expended during fiscal year ending June 30, 1876. 63,471 48 37,814 61 80,000 00 3. Improvement of the Wabash River.-The outstanding contracts at the beginning of the fiscal year were for clearing out the Little Cut-off, for closing the New Harmony Cut-off by a dam, and for excavating a channel at Warwick's Ripple. The contract at Little Chain was completed. At New Harmony the dam was only partly built when the season closed. Some damage was done to it during the winter, but this has been repaired, and the dam will probably be finished by the end of the year. At Warwick's Ripple no work of excavation was done during the last season, as the contractor failed to get his coffer-dam dry. He is again at work, but thus far has done but little. The prospect of finishing the work by the close of the present season is unfavorable. Estimate for fiscal year 1877-'78. For rebuilding Grand Rapids lock.. Total amount required..... .$130,000 00 15,000 00 Amount available July 1, 1875 Amount expended during fiscal year ending June 30, 1876.... Amount available July 1, 1876, including $271.88 due ou contracts. Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. 145,000 00 (See appendix R 5.) EXAMINATIONS AND SURVEYS FOR IMPROVEMENT. To comply with provisions of the act of March 3, 1875, Major Merrill was charged with the completion of the surveys begun under the act of June 23, 1874, for the extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal from Cumberland, Maryland, to the headwaters of the Youghiogheny River. The final report was transmitted to Congress at its last session, and printed in H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 137. (See Appendix R 6.) Also with the survey of Monongahela River from Morgantown to Fairport, West Virginia, and an examination of the Louisa Fork of Sandy River from the mouth of Dismal, in Buchanan County, Virginia, to Piketon, Kentucky, the results of which were transmitted to Congress in reports printed in H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 91. (See Appendixes R 7 and R 8.) And also with an examination of Allegheny River below Freeport, Pennsylvania, and the survey of Allegheny River near Pittsburgh. (See Appendix R 9.) IMPROVEMENT OF GREAT KANAWHA RIVER, WEST VIRGINIA, AND OF NEW RIVER, VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA. Officer in charge, Maj. W. P. Craighill, Corps of Engineers, with Lieut. Thomas Turtle, Corps of Engineers, under his immediate orders. 1. Improvement of Great Kanawha River, West Virginia.-Three hundred thousand dollars was appropriated March 3, 1875. As soon as was possible, the possession of sites for beginning operations was obtained. The necessary legal process caused some delay. Contracts were made as follows: August 20, 1875, for building a large lock near Brownstown; October 15, 1875, for building a similar lock near the foot of Cabin Creek Shoal; March 28, 1876, for building a dam, abutment, pier, and the floor of a navigation-pass adjoining the lock at Brownstown. The contract-prices were lower than the estimates of the engineer. Financial difficulties and other troubles have caused delay, but it is expected that the works contracted for will be so far advanced in the workingseason of 1876 as to be essentially completed in 1877. The next operations to be undertaken should be the building of the dam, &c., adjoining the lock near Cabin Creek Shoal, and the occupation of one or more other of the locations of the series. The late date at which the new appropriation was made will cause delay in bringing on the work, which, in the earlier stages at every location, can only be done at the lowest stage of the water, a period of brief duration in each year on this river. A small sum was expended in the last fiscal year in ameliorating the condition of some of the worst shoals which obstruct navigation at points not affected by the permanent works now in hand. The same plan will be pursued in the current fiscal year. The appropriations have been, March 3, 1873, $25,000; June 23, 1874, $25,000; total for temporary improvement, $50,000. The first appropriation for the permanent improvement was $300,000, March 3, 1875; another made August 14, 1876, of $270,000. The total of the estimate for the permanent improvement is $4,152,000. Amount available July 1, 1875 $302,753 62 31, 293 13 271, 460 49 270,000 00 3,852, 000 00 Amount expended during fiscal year ending June 30, 1876... 2. Improvement of New River from the lead-mines in Wythe County, Virginia, to the mouth of the Greenbrier River, in West Virginia.- Special reports as to this portion of the river were made December 20, 1872, and January 9, 1873, which were printed in the annual report of the Chief of Engineers for 1873. Those reports, with their maps and subreports, contain the latest official information on the subject. Two plans were recommended for consideration-a 2-feet keel-boat navigation, costing $100,000, and a 3-feet steamboat navigation, costing $1,000,000. It was also stated, as an approximation, that a 5-feet steam-navigation would cost about $2,500,000. No decision has yet been arrived at as to the best method of expending the small appropriation of $15,000 made by act of August 14, 1876. Amount appropriated by act approved August 14, 1876.... Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. EXAMINATIONS AND SURVEYS FOR IMPROVEMENT. $15,000 50,000 Major Craighill submitted December 7, 1875, a report of the survey of Elk River, in West Virginia, between its mouth at Charleston and Braxton Court House. (See Appendix S 2 to this report, as also Ex. Doc. No. 69, H. R. 44th Cong., 1st sess.) TRANSPORTATION-ROUTES TO THE SEABOARD. The act of June 23, 1874, provided for surveys and estimates to be made, for the improvement recommended by the Senate Select Committee on Transportation-Routes to the Seaboard, upon certain routes indicated by the committee. Upon the receipt of each report, whether upon an entire route or any portion of it, it was submitted by the Secretary of War to Congress and printed, the whole forming a series of executive documents, which were also inserted in the appendix of my last annual report. Upon the third subdivision of the Mississippi route, surveys were continued during the last fiscal year, under the direction of Col. J. N. Macomb, Corps of Engineers, from La Crosse, Wis., to Des Moines Rapids, at which point the work was discontinued, the available funds having been exhausted. 66 The report of the results of this survey will be found in Appendix T 1. Upon the third subdivision of the central route, designated as a connection by canal or a freight-railway from the Ohio or Kanawha River, near Charleston, by the shortest and most practicable route through West Virginia to tide-water in Virginia," the surveys for which were assigned to Maj. William B. Craighill, Corps of Engineers, the study of the subject has been continued by him, and a further report will be submitted at an early day. In connection with the first subdivision of the northern route, a report to this office from Maj. G. K. Warren, Corps of Engineers, upon the improvement of the route of water-transportation between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan along the valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, was transmitted to Congress at its last session, and printed as Senate Ex. Doc. No. 28. The conclusions reached by Major Warren are adverse to the permanent improvement of the Wisconsin River by a system of canalization or rectification of its high and low water channels, and that a canal along its banks is the only method of permanent improvement. The improvement of this route is now in progress, in charge of Maj. D. C. Houston, Corps of Engineers. The present method of improvement of the Wisconsin is on trial on its own merits, and it is too soon to announce the final result; but the publication of this report, with the data it contains, will enable others to form an opinion of the nature of the undertaking, and aid in a more speedy solution. (See Appendix T 2.) BRIDGING THE NAVIGABLE WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES. To comply with acts of Congress relative thereto, the attention of this office has been called by the Secretary of War to questions arising in the proposed construction of bridges across navigable streams. (See Appendix U 1.) The reports of boards of engineer officers convened to consider some of the proposed plans of bridges, will be found as below: 1. Bridge across Ohio River at Cincinnati, proposed by the Cincinnati Southern Railway Company. (See Appendix U 2.) 2. Bridge across Mississippi River at Dubuque, proposed by the Dubuque and Dunleith Pile and Ponton Bridge Company. (See Appendix U 3.) 3. Bridge across the Saint Croix River at Stillwater, Minnesota. (See Appendix U 4.) And also an examination of the harbor of Saint Joseph, Mich., and of the construction of the railroad-bridge across that harbor, with the |