done, at least $80,000 should be appropriated to remove the obstructions at Harpeth Shoals. The river flows through several collection districts, the names of which are not known to me. The nearest port of entry is Louisville, Kentucky. The amount of revenue collected at this port during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871, was $131,810 92. The commerce and navigation of the Mississippi River and all of its branches would be benefited by the completion of this work. No money was received and none expended on this work during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871. The amount of the appropriation available July 1, 1871, was $30,000. The amount required for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1873, and which can be profitably expended, is $218,821. I am, sir, very respectfully, yonr obedient servant, Brigadier General A. A. HUMPHREYS, Major of Engineers. Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. Abstract of bids received by Major G. Weitzel, Corps of Engineers, for the improvement of the Cumberland River, at the city of Nashville, Nashville Island, Gower's Island, and Harpeth Shoals. Letting, June 17, 1871. UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, GENERAL: By letter from the office of the Chief of Engineers, dated July 23, 1870, I was charged, in addition to other duties, with the survey of the Cumberland River. I placed Mr. S. T. Abert, civil engineer, in the immediate charge of this survey, and I herewith transmit his report. This is so full and explains the necessity for the improvement of this river so closely, that I think it necessary only to call attention to the fact that this river is second to none of the branches of the Ohio River as far as the necessity for improvement is concerned. It empties into the Ohio River only about seventy-three miles above the mouth of the latter. Between its mouth and the mouth of the Ohio there are but few obstructions to navigation in the latter river, and these few will probably soon be removed. I therefore recommend that the sum of $450,000 be appropriated for the improvement of this river, and that the further sum of $8,000 be appropriated to enable me to complete the instrumental survey of the river from Nashville to the foot of the falls. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Brigadier General A. A. HUMPHREYS, Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. Total. Major G. WEITZEL, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, January 20, 1871. Corps of Engineers, Louisville, Kentucky. SIR: In compliance with your instructions, I have the honor to submit the following report of the survey of the Cumberland River: The party when organized numbered twenty-one men, including two assistants, Mr. Edward Mead and Fr. Hellner. A small steamer was employed, as the most expeditious and economical means of making the survey. The entire party embarked at Nashville on the 1st of September, and returned on the 31st of October, 1870, having completed a reconnaissance of nearly two hundred miles, and having made a careful survey of all the important obstructions between Nashville and the mouth of the river. As the upper part of the river, between Nashville and the head of navigation, flows through a fine agricultural district, as well as an important section of the coal-fields of Kentucky, the survey could not be regarded as complete if it omitted to notice this regiou. A small party was left in Nashville to complete the field-maps, while a personal reconnaissance was made of the river between Nashville and the falls of the Cumberland, a distance of four hundred and three miles. Iu the following description of the course and character of the river, I have inverted the procedure of the survey, and have traced the river from its source downward. The Cumberland River rises on the west slope of the Cumberland Mountains, and in the northeast extremity of Harlan County, Kentucky. Its course is an eccentric one. Instead of taking a northwest direction, which would have been perpendicular to the course of the highlands, and in conformity to the natural dip of the upper strata, its general courses, from its head to its mouth, is semicircnlar. Approaching Nashville from the northwest with three large convolutions, two-thirds of the length of which are parallel with the Cumberland highlands, it turns northwest at Nashville and finally terminates its course in the Ohio River, near the mouth of the equally eccentric Teunessee, in nearly the same latitude as its source. The Cumberland Mountains, which separate the water-shed of the Cumberland from the valley of Tennessee, have at this point an altitude of 2,600 feet above the sea. Cumberland Gap is about 1,600 feet. With a rapid descent, the river reaches the first bench of the highlands, and, after a precipitous fall, it flows with a more equable current among the sub-carboniferous conglomerates of the highland plateau. Cutting its pathway through solid rock, it reaches, in Whitley County, about ten miles below Williamsburgh, the great falls of the Cumberland, where the entire river is precipitated over the conglomerate, with a vertical fall of 63 feet. Here, in a deep and rocky basin, at the foot of the falls, it stops to rest before pursuing its rugged course. Here, too, the surveys and plans of improvement usually begin. Although the river above the falls might be made navigable for barges for fifty miles by the removal of the dams which obstruct its course, the falls present an almost insuperable barrier to further progress. The produce of this section of country finds an outlet by the railroad from Mount Vernon to Louisville. This road, when completed, will cross the Cumberland at Williamsburgh, Kentucky, and will extend to Knoxville. Before entering upon a specific description, the following tabular statement will give the more salient features of the river. The altitude above the sea has been determined by a comparison of railroad levels. From the head of navigation to the mouth of the river is about five hundred and fifty miles; of this distance, one hundred and twenty-nine miles of the upper and seventy-five miles of the lower part of the river, or two hundred and four miles in all, are in the State of Kentucky, and three hundred and four miles in the State of Tennes see. As the slope of the river varies considerably in different parts of its course, it produces a corresponding variation in the range between high and low water. At the falls the range is not known. At Point Burnside it is 65.5 feet; at Nashville the high water of February, 1847, was 52.9; of March, 1867, 50.3 feet. An ordinary rise of 33.8 feet at Nashville is equivalent to fifteen miles at the foot of Smith's Shoals, and to five miles at the head, or to what is called a "coal-boat tide," which is the stage of water at which the coal barges are just able to pass the rapids. At Goner's Island the range is 41.6 feet; at Harpeth Shoals, forty miles from Nashville, it is 39.3 feet; below Davis's Ripple it is 55.8; at Clarksville, sixty-five miles from Nashville, it is 56.3; at the Tennessee Rolling-Mills, one hundred and forty-five miles from Nashville, the high water of March 14, 1863, was 53.8; of March 14, 1867, 55.2. At the mouth of the river, one hundred and ninety-two miles from Nashville, and five hundred and fifty-two miles from Point Burnside, the range is 51 feet. As the great floods occur generally in February and March, before the crops are planted, the destruction from high water is not as great as takes place upon the Arkansas, the Red River, and the Mississippi, where the bottoms are less elevated, and where the greatest floods often occur in June and July. From the falls to Point Burnside the river flows in a narrow gorge which it has excavated out of subcarboniferous sandstone, conglomerate, and cavernous limestone, at a depth of three to four hundred feet below the highland plateau. The river in this distance varies from 100 to 650 feet in width, but the gorge is more uniform, increasing gradually from 500 to 700 feet. In this part of its course the river is approachable by roads, which are exceedingly rough, resembling irregular flights of stone steps, hardly practicable on horseback, but exhibiting at every turn, as they descend the sides of the bluffs, wild and picturesque cliffs of rock. At Point Burnside the gorge widens, and bottoms appear of sufficient extent to be cultivable. The river continues to flow through a rocky bed with bluffs of limestone, and with a valley varying from one-half to one mile wide, as far as Carthage, where the valley extends upon the south side, into the Nashville basin. The river follows the northern edge of the highland rim, until it leaves the basin and re-enters the highlands about fourteen miles below Nashville. It continues to flow through the intersecting ridges and valleys of the highland rim, with bottoms about a mile wide and gradually increasing in length and encroaching on the bluffs of siliceous limestone, until it enters the upheaved sandstone and coal of Livingston County, at its mouth. In the latter part of its course its width varies from 600 to 700 feet, and its banks, when composed of alluvion, begin to exhibit evidences of change, which shows itself in the bars. Before entering on a more minute description, the course of the river may, for convenience, be divided in three general divisions: The first division extends from the great falls of the Cumberland to Point Burnside, a distance of forty-five miles. The second division extends from Point Burnside to Nashville, a distance of three hundred and fifty-eight miles. The third division extends from Nashville to the mouth of the river, a distance of one hundred and ninety-two miles. FIRST DIVISION. From the falls to the mouth of Laurel River, the Cumberland, as has been stated, flows between cliffs of subcarboniferous sandstone and conglomerate, which rise occasionally in escarpments, from a mass of débris at the base, to the height of 300 or 400 feet. The top of the bluffs forms the plateau of the Cumberland highlands, which extends northeast through Virginia and Pennsylvania to New York, and southwest through Tennessee into Alabama, with an entire length of seven hundred and fifty miles. Its height near the falls of the Cumberland is 1,190 feet above mean tide at Mobile, and descends to between 500 and 600 feet, at the Alabama line. This plateau forms part of the rim of the Nashville basin, and its area, in the States above mentioned, is coextensive with the most valuable coal-fields of Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Large masses of conglomerate, which have fallen from the bluffs, obstruct the course of the river and indicate its destructive power, as the falls have slowly receded to their present position. Some of these masses are from 50 to 60 feet, cubed, and occur in such numbers as to break up the river into narrow, irregular currents, and render it impassable for a canoe. A descending navigation in this part of the river can only be made by an expenditure of money wholly disproportionate to population and productive character of the adjacent country. The distance from the falls to Laurel River is ten miles, and the descent at low water 85 feet, or at the rate of 8.5 feet per mile. The channel is from 150 to 180 feet wide, and at several points it is even reduced to 30 or 40 feet. From the mouth of Laurel River to Smith's Shoals, which is the most serious obstruction in this division, the distance is twenty-four miles and the descent 31 feet, or nearly 1.3 feet per mile. In this part of the river the tops of the bluffs are capped with sandstone and conglomerate, the river having cut its way into the cavernous limestone. The elevation of the bluffs is not so great as in the previous section, between Laurel and the falls, but the country is equally broken near the river by ridges and ravines, shut in by vertical walls of sandstone or conglomerate. The ravines, on account of their depth and narrowness, might be compared to cañons. The tops of the tall hemlocks reach to the feet of the traveler as he rides along the brink. The sides of the ravines are clothed with the dark-green foliage of the ivy and laurel, mingled with cedar and arborvitæ. The bluffs upon the river are similarly adorned, and overhang the water at many points for 30 feet or more. At one point a creek, which disappears at some distance from the river in the plateau above, enters near the surface of the water with a volume sufficient to turn a small grist-mill. A saw-mill, in this part of the river, supplies the material for the coal-barges at $15 to $20 per thousand. ` Rockcastle River enters about three or four miles below Laurel, and although the veins of coal appear near the surface of the water at this point, it cannot be profitably mined on account of the shoals. About ten miles below Laurel the coal-bed is about 250 feet above low water, and here a deep channel affords facilities for building and loading the coal-barges. As the improvement of Rockcastle River is often spoken of in the vicinity, I would say that the survey made by the State proves that it is not practicable. The descent for fifty-two miles is 207 feet, or at an average rate of 4 feet per mile, but the actual fall is confined to shorter distances, and at one point amounts to 21 feet in four-tenths of a mile, and for a considerable distance its course is a succession of cascades. At another point the entire river at low water flows under a bridge of rocks. The trade of the country is very limited, and the cost of removing rocks, snags, and logs would amonnt to $1,000,000. Below the mouth of Rockcastle River, the Cumberland is divided into a succession of pools and rapids; the pools vary in depth from 4 to 6 feet at low water. One or two of them are from 20 to 30 feet deep. The barge-builders take advantage of these deep places to turn their barges, which are built with the bottoms uppermost. At the shallow points, 6 inches may be found at low water. The bars are composed of rocky débris and large gravel, resting on a rock bottom. The work on this section will consist in removing several bars and fish-dams and blasting detached rock and projecting masses. The obstructions to descending navigation are small in comparison with those which occur at Smith's Shoals, which come next in order. Smith's Shoals.-The name of Smith's Shoals, or the Great Shoals, has been applied to a succession of rapids, caused by the descent of the river over ledges of shaly limestone, and designated successively Shadowen Shoal, White Cliff Ripple, Long Shoal, and Smith's Shoal. These shoals are the most dangerous obstacles to descending navigation, and before the channel had been improved, as many as ten to twelve coal-boats have been lost out of forty, which attempted to descend during a freshet. Since that period a large amount of rock has been removed from the channel, and the loss of coalboats does not exceed three annually. The entire length of the shoals is nine miles, and the aggregate descent 54 feet, or at the rate of 6 feet per mile. As the river below the shoals has a very moderate descent, a rise of 13 feet at the foot is equivalent to 1-foot rise at the head of the shoals. When therefore the river is high enough for boats to run the rapids, the slope is reduced to about 44 feet, or to nearly 5 feet per mile. Shadowen Shoal, the first of the series, is formed of horizontal ledges of limestone, fractured and seamed by the current, over which the water flows with a depth varying little from 3 inches, when the river is about 1 foot above low water. Here the river expands from a width of 400 to 700 feet, and continues nearly the same width throughout the length of the shoal. The length of Shadowen is two miles and the descent 10 feet, or at the rate of 5 feet per mile. A vertical cliff of limestone, two to three hundred feet in height, gives the name to White Cliff Ripple, which is three miles below the first. It is about one-fourth of a mile long, with a descent of 25 feet, or at the rate of 10 feet per mile. The width of the river is about 600 feet. It resembles the first. Long Shoal is separated from the last by a pool, three-quarters of a mile in length. It has the same bottom as the others, but varies in width from 600 to 660 feet. It is one mile and seven-tenths in length, and has a descent of 21 feet, or at the rate of nearly 13 feet per mile, but at one point there is a vertical fall of 24 feet. The contraction of the water-way, the rapid descent, and the sudden turn to the left which occurs at this point, make the passage more dangerous than at any other part of the shoals. Three lateral dams have been built in this bend. All of them enter the river nearly perpendicu lar to the current, and two of them are provided with flank walls. The stones on the upper one have been scattered by the floods. These dams were not intended to influence the low-water stage, and their utility, on account of their position, is doubtful at high water. Smith Shoals is about one-fourth of a mile lower down. In length it is three-fourths of a mile plus 478 feet, and has a descent of 15 feet, or at the rate of 17.6 feet per mile Three lateral dams, or wing-dams, have been built in this bend, two from the righ bank and one from the left. The upper dam on the right and the dam on the left have flank extensions. In this shoal there is a vertical descent of about 2 feet, but the danger is not as great as in the Long Shoal. Some of the dams were constructed by the United States and part by the State of Kentucky, at different times, and quite a large amount of rock has been removed from the channel. The rock excavation has been of undoubted benefit, but the utility of the dams has been questioned. While increasing the depth of water, they have, it is said, at the same time increased the turbulence of the current, and the coal-boats are sometimes sunk by the waves which dash over the sides. To secure the safety of the descending navigation, it will be necessary to distribute the descent where the fall is greatest, by excavating the channel. If dams are erected, they should be placed in the still water of the pools below the .shoals, so as to reduce the descent, without dangerously increasing the velocity of the current. A canal would afford a secure transit both for ascending and descending boats in ordinary stages of the river, and would cost about $1,500,000. A slack-water navigation, by means of locks and dams, would be equally efficient, but not so durable. It would cost about $900,000, or about $15,000 per foot rise for 66 feet, which, with four or five dams, would give at low water about 3 feet of water in each lock. These estimates are not included in the final statement. The improvement of the natural channel by contraction or excavation has been alone considered, on account of the cost of other methods of improvement. A descending navigation is practicable by the latter method in this part of the river. The coal-boats receive their loads during the fall months, and are tied up to wait for the winter floods. Upon the appearance of a sufficient "tide" they start in rapid succession. The race is exciting, but not dangerous to life. If the boat is wrecked on the rocks, or swamped by the waves, the boatmen float ashore on the large oars, which are made of poplar and are very light. Throughout the length of Sinith's Shoals the bluffs, between 300 and 400 feet in height, are conspicuously escarped; the escarpment is sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left, but always opposed to the direction of the current. The rock, when not stained by oxide iron, or pink lichen, is of a light-gray color. The débris at bottom affords a foothold for trees, and the bluff on the opposite side is partially concealed by trees and clinging shrubbery. Two narrow strips of bottom, one at the foot, and the other about one-half a mile below the shoals, are cultivated. From the foot of the shoals to Point Burnside, a distance of two miles and a descent of of a foot, or at the rate of 3.5 feet per mile, completes the first division. The removal of some logs is sufficient to make this distance safe for steamboats. Before commencing the description of the next division, a few words may be given to the Great South Fork of the Cumberland, which enters at this point. This branch is regarded by some persons as of sufficient importance to dispute precedence with the main stream. The Great South Fork.-This fork has been surveyed under the authority of the State of Kentucky. The following statement of distances and descent is taken from the report of that survey: From Little Jumps, a narrow rocky gorge, to the mouth of the river, the distance is about thirty miles, and the descent at the rate of 24 feet per mile. The width varies from 50 to 200 feet except at Messer's and Sloan's Shoals, where the width varies from 200 to 400 feet. In this distance are two rocky bars and two shoals composed of ledges of rock, which have just been named. The descent of these shoals is about 15 feet to the mile. This part of the fork could be improved by lateral dams and excavation, for the sum of $10,900. But the best coal is found above Little Jumps and between Little and Big Jumps, a distance of fourteen miles, and here the obstacles are very formidable. At Big Jumps the channel is filled with large rocks for a distance of 400 feet. The descent of the river between these two points varies from 7 to 14 feet. The channel is narrow, and its course so crooked that a loaded boat could hardly descend at high water with safety. At one point during low water the river disappears, and, sinking into a subterranean channel, reappears two miles below. Here, where improvement would be most costly, the best veins of coal are found. The work above mentioned is not included in the estimate for improving the Cumberland. SECOND DIVISION. From Point Burnside to Nashville, the head of low-water steam navigation, the distance is 358 miles, and the descent 232 feet. The line of the proposed railroad from Cincinnati to Chattanooga crosses the river at the head of this division, and ascending the ridge east of the South Fork attains the highland plateau upon which, with an imperceptible descent, it extends to the State line of Georgia. From Point Burnside to the dividing line between Kentucky and Tennessee the distance is one hundred and twenty-nine miles, and the descent 94 feet, or at the rate of 0.73 of a foot to the mile. In this section, in ordinary high stages of the river, steamboats encounter difficulties at nineteen or twenty points, consisting of |