Assent has been given as follows:

1. January 30, to Louis Sherry to build a sea wall and fill behind it near the southerly end of the bathing beach at Narragansett Pier.

2. March 27, to John T. Tank for the construction of a temporary wharf near the wharf of the Standard Oil Company on the east side of Seekonk river, south of Red Bridge.

3. April 17, to J. A. Dailey & Son to repair the Field's Point wharf.

4. May 29, to Albert T. Mansfield, Superintendent of Public Buildings in Providence, to drive piles near Red Bridge and near Washington Bridge, for temporary use for mooring city bath houses.

5. May 29, to Nancy A. Dyer to lay an outlet pipe into tide water at Wickford.

6. May 29, to George B. Boyden to drive piles on the west side of Bullock's cove near the bridge, for temporary protection.

7. May 29, to Rogers & Fitzpatrick to place material on the west side of Pawtucket river opposite to land of John Mitchell and to put stone waste in a dredged pit near Pleasant Bluff.

8. June 19, to J. & P. Coats, Limited, to drive piles for temporary use in Pawtucket river opposite their coal pocket in Pawtucket.

CHANNEL IMPROVEMENTS,

There are increasing indications that the ship channel southerly from Field's Point is being pushed easterly on to the rocks of the east shore by a return current or eddy made around or near Starve Goat Island, in the sudden expansion of the bay at that point. The sandy spit of Field's Point is a movable body changing greatly in certain storms and maintained in its general position, perhaps, by the same forces that crowd the ship channel against the east shore. The harbor line opposite this spit runs through the dining hall of the buildings occupied by Col. Atwell and if the earth were cut back to the harbor line the channel would be widened

about three hundred and sixty-five feet between Kettle Point and Field's Point. Possibly this greater width of channel once made would be maintained by natural forces and the ship channel straightened and held westerly of its present position, if a jetty or dike were constructed, connecting Starve Goat Island with Field's Point, thus obstructing the current or eddy now running easterly along the southerly shore of Field's Point. Such a result would be of very great value to the harbor of Providence and it is one which might reasonably be expected to be secured by the United States Government. The Harbor Commissioners have brought this matter to the attention of the United States Engineer Department and an effort will be made at this session of Congress to secure an appropriation for a thorough survey and study of the conditions existing and improvements that may be found practicable.

MUNICIPAL DOCKS,

Some attention has been given to the question of municipal ownership of wharves and docks and it seems probable that the public interest and economy will be served by the occupation of the larger portion, at least, of the shore line on the west side of Providence harbor, from the city wharf near Henderson street to the Harbor Junction wharf of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, by the city of Providence, and the erection from time to time as required, of modern appliances on convenient wharves, for the handling by steam power, of freight from vessels, and its deposit alongside in warehouses or upon trucks or cars, at pleasure. By such means an enormous freight business may be handled upon a small area; with lines of car tracks along every wharf front connecting with the railroad lines, the cost of handling freight between shipping and railroads may be reduced to a minimum. Such conditions could hardly fail to greatly increase the shipping business of this port.

It is not improbable that with such facilities as have been indicated a large part of the coastwise freight now taken by shipping

around Cape Cod through the dangerous shoals, fogs and shifting currents of that easterly shore, might be diverted to Providence and taken overland to Boston.

COUNTY OF NEWPORT.

Application is sometimes made to the Board, by owners of shore property in the county of Newport, for aid in the way of advice or direction, in the improvement of their property, or for authority to make such improvement in the public waters. But such applicants are necessarily referred to the General Assembly for authority to do their work, because of the withholding of the shore of that county from the privileges of the Act in relation to Harbor Commissioners.

APPENDIX.

By the courtesy of Major D. W. Lockwood, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, in charge of river and harbor improvement in this district, we have been furnished with a copy of the portion of the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers specially relating to these waters and we have made extracts therefrom which may be found in the Appendix.

Major Lockwood has also kindly given to us a memorandum of the Government work from July 1, 1895, to January 1, 1896, a copy of which is to be found in the Appendix.

A copy of the Act of the General Assembly passed June 13, 1894, in relation to the removal of obstructions to navigation will be found in the Appendix.

Respectfully submitted,

J. HERBERT SHEDD,
H. C. BRADFORD,

ALFRED W. KENYON.

Harbor Commissioners.

APPENDIX A.

EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U. S. A., FOR 1895.

IMPROVEMENT OF PAWTUCKET RIVER, RHODE ISLAND.

The navigable part of the Pawtucket (or Seckonk) River, an arm of Providence River, extends from Providence to Pawtucket, a city which in 1890 had a population of about 28,000 and extensive manufactures, depending largely on water transportation. The mean rise and fall of the tide is about 5 feet.

Original condition.-Before improvement the channel in the river was narrow and had a ruling depth of about 5 feet at mean low water.

Between 1867 and 1882 $52,000 was appropriated to dredge the channel to 75 feet width and 7 feet depth at low water. This work was completed in 1876. At the adoption of the present project the channel was narrow and only about 7 feet deep.

Plan of improvement.-The present approved project, that of 1883, provides for the deepening of the river so as to secure a channel of at least 12 feet depth at low water, with 100 feet width from its mouth at Providence up to opposite Grant & Co.'s Wharf, at Pawtucket, and thence 12 feet depth with 40 feet width through a stone ledge for a short distance toward Pawtucket Bridge; all at a total cost estimated in 1883 at $382,500.

A plan of the works may be found at page 608, Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1884, and page 830 of 1893.

Appropriations.—Upon the present project appropriations have been made as follows: 1884, $50,000; 1886, $30,000; 1888, $35,000; 1890, $30,000; 1892, $35,000; 1894, $25,000. Total up to June 30, 1895, $205,000.

Amount expended and results to June 30, 1894.--The total amount expended on the present project, including $149.28 outstanding liabilities, up to June 30, 1894, was $169,125.79, by which the shoalest places had been improved and about nine-tenths of the needed work done, securing a channel of about 12 feet depth with 100 feet width up to above the lower wharves of the city of Paw