put back. Between November 4 and December 8 the fleet, consisting of the following hulls, was pulled out and placed on the ways, all rakes shored, holes cleaned, and machinery properly drained and laid up for the winter: Twenty-four 100-foot barges, one of them carrying a boiler, steam hoist, a set of pile leads, and a Cram steam hammer; thirteen 64-foot barges, three of them with cabin quarters; four pile-driving apparatuses; four mattress boats; one grader; three large and two small construction quarter boats; the steam tenders Arethusa and Sabrina; the office boats Margaret and De Russey; forty-six skiffs, and a small barge, the latter belonging to the Gasconade River property. The work of preparing floating plant for early service in the spring was commenced with a small force on the 5th of February. The following hulls were repaired, calked, and launched by the 22d of March, the first hull being launched on the 17th of February: Nineteen 100-foot and nine 64-foot barges; three steam piledriving apparatus; steam tenders Arethusa and Sabrina; office boat Margaret; five small quarter boats; one mattress boat; ten skiffs and a small barge, belonging to the Gasconade River property. The character of the repairs was comparatively slight; rotten spots in the sides and head blocks of the barges and other hulls were cut out and engraven pieces put in, though occasionally scabs were used; the decks were patched, the rakes shimmed, and the fastenings, timberheads, and kevils renewed where needed; the roof of the Arethusa was entirely covered with new canvas and was painted with three coats all over; the roofs of other cabin pieces were patched and painted; the machinery on all of the pieces was thoroughly overhauled and put in good working order, the steam boilers and their steam gauges were inspected and tested; the boilers were subjected to a hydraulic pressure 50 per cent in excess of the working pressure allowed each one. Current repairs incident to the wear and tear of service were about as usual and were done from time to time as the need developed. The repairs to the yard plant and appliances were slight and comparatively inexpensive; the kitchen floor was repaired and a new chimney made and erected at the quarters; the roof of the steam saw and planing mill was repaired and the entire building given a coat of paint; the east and west yard pulling apparatus were several times overhauled; the boiler of the west apparatus was turned around 180 degrees, the fire front repaired, furnace walls and shed rebuilt, and boiler tubes expanded. A ventilator was made in the roof of the blacksmith shop; the coal tramway and car were overhauled, the wheels of the latter were turned down and banded, and the operating engine was removed from the south end of the track to a point off the track and about midway of its length. The entire stock of small tools and applances, such as pulling blocks, wheelbarrows, quarry tools, bilge pumps, etc., were gone over and, such of them as required it, repaired. The U. S. steamer Alert was overhauled and put in serviceable condition, and on the 19th of August turned over to her officers for temporary towage work on the Omaha division. During a violent storm on the night of June 24, the following damage was done at the Gasconade boat yard by an onshore wind out of the northwest: Four pairs of steam pile hammer leads were blown down and badly wrecked; two of these were on shore and strongly guyed with three -inch strand; the other two were on the river, one of them on pile-driver pump boat No. 2, and the other on No. 6; the former boat was lying at the coal chute just outside the ice boat and when the leads went over they fell across that piece; the leads on No. 6 fell on the roof of the machine boat which was lying just inside. In both cases the leads were damaged more than the roofs of the boats on which they fell, although the lantern on the machine boat was crushed and the roof girders settled about 9 inches. The quarter boat De Russey (so called because the upper cabin was once a part of the cabin of the old snag boat of that name) was lying in the yard at the top of the bank and directly in the path of the storm. The afterpart of her upper cabin was demolished; the skylight roof forward and the entire starboard and forward guard rail and guard roof were carried away. To the southeast of the De Russey the three tower leads stood, each with six pairs of leads for sinking piles with a jet and although they wore strongly guyed with -inch strand the wind twisted and overturned them with such violence that there was scarcely a whole timber left. Two of the ventilators on the steam saw and planing mill were blown off and five of the heavy rolled-plate glass in the skylights were broken. The steam tenders Arethusa and Melusina, which were lying at the bank, had their upper works more or less distorted and were kept afloat with the greatest difficulty. None of the employees were injured. The stoker of the Arethusa was blown overboard, but caught a line that was made fast to some piling and hung on till the storm was over. Unserviceable property.-The unserviceable property on the Gasconade division and a portion of that on the Osage division was assembled at Gasconade and inspected January 11 by the Inspector-General, United States Army. The property then and previously condemned, which had been recommended to be sold, was disposed of, after advertisement, by public sale on March 27. In April seven of the condemned 100-foot barges were launched for the purchaser. Four pile-sinker pump boats were dismantled of their machinery and cabins and their hulls destroyed. The three tower pile leads were removed from their cross-boat hulls to the three old umbrella cross boats lying just south of them; the former hulls were then made use of to store the machinery and three of the cabins from the condemned pile drivers. New plant. The only new plant made during the year was nine wooden bilge pumps for use on barges and two office chests. The expenditures on account of plant during the year are shown in the Appendix, Exhibit G. SURVEY WORK. The operation under this heading during the year comprised the usual work of this kind, attending the building of dikes, revetment, and bank-head; the regular fall topographic and hydrographic survey of the reach from Isbell to Rhineland Landing; a series of special hydrographic surveys in the vicinity of the Little Tavern group of dikes; those opposite and the Bluffton group; two special hydrographic surveys of Chamois reach besides a number of others in the immediate approaches and front of the bank-head. Isbell to Rhineland Landing.-The annual fall survey of the division was made this year by a party which started at a point 1 mile below Claysville on the Osage division and made a continuous survey to Rhineland Landing. They entered the lower division at Isbell on the 27th of October and completed the survey November 25. All shore line was run out, and cross sections of the river made on all the regular range lines. Unfortunately, a rise 3.85 feet occurred during the work. The accompanying map, Pl. I, and the cross sections of even date shown on Pls. II to XVIII were developed from the notes of this survey. Special surveys and observations at dikes. By your direction a series of special surveys and observations were made at the Little Tavern Dikes I, III, and V; Dikes II and IV opposite, and Dikes VII, IX, and XI, of the Bluffton group. The object in view was to secure accurate data showing in detail the configuration of accretions and bottom as well as direction and velocities of flow at and near permeable dikes. A party organized and equipped with special apparatus and a quarter boat was continuously engaged in this work from July 29 to October 3. Levels were run to show the dry contours for each foot in elevation of accretions on both banks in the Little Tavern reach, and on the left bank of the Bluffton reach. Several sets of located soundings on special parallel ranges 50 feet apart were made on both reaches-those in the upper reach extended across the stream; in the lower reach they were partial sections only. Two or more sets of very careful soundings were made about the head of each of the dikes, 5 feet apart for a distance of 200 to 250 feet on lines radiating from a point on the dikes at the shore line or near its outer end. The radial lines were uniformly 3 degrees apart and, within the stated radial limits, all of the waterway at each dike was sounded-thus at Dike II the space sounded covered the area included in an entire circle 400 feet in diameter. The soundings were made from a skiff, at tags spaced 5 feet apart on a steel cable. The latter was stretched taut from a pin at the center for radial lines to a skiff anchored in the stream; the skiff by means of a system of anchors and buoyed lines was firmly held in a fixed position which could be adjusted by means of reels to the exact radial line indicated by a transit set over the center. On both reaches several sets of current floats were run past the dikes and their paths and velocities observed. The notes were reduced and platted in the office, making 20 charts, from each of which a tracing was made and transmitted to you. The accompanying Pls. XXXI to XXXVI were selected for publication as constituting the best example for study of the influence of permeable dikes upon conditions of flow that has come under the writer's observation. The relation between dynamic head and velocity as algebraically expressed by the formula h= is hardly more positive than the train of effects that follow a given head on 2 g a permeable dike in Missouri River, and are made manifest in the configuration of bottom and current lines. Within reasonable limits as to line approaching, flow, and kind of material forming bottom, the example is characteristic, and is an "open sesame" to many unexpected results attending improvements by permeable or solid dikes. For example, the reason for the formation of a middle ground in a reach of improved river the banks of which on either side are defined by dikes to a normal width, that, with a desired depth, would not permit bar formation, is made apparent; the observed fact that midflow is attracted rather than repelled is explained, and therefore the reason that failure so surely attends the persistent efforts that are made by private and corporate interests from one end of the valley to the other, to effect a crossing or marked deflection in the line of flow by means of solid dikes, or by an isolated dike of any kind. V2 On account of bank-head.-The revetted bank in Chamois Bend shows three quite marked bays, and it was for the purpose of studying the conditions of flow as affected by these bays that you directed a special hydrographic survey to be made, showing contours for each foot in depth as well as float paths and velocities through a reach including the middle and lower bay. The field work was accomplished between August 28 and September 12. It having been decided to build a bank-head on range 249 at the foot of the bend, a survey to determine 1-foot contours through the reach from range 251 to 247, inclusive, was made September 29 to October 3. The accompanying map (Pl. XXXVII) was compiled from that survey, the one last referred to and the annual low-water survey, and is intended to show conditions of flow prior to the growth of accretions above Dike 28 A' and the construction of the bank-head. Pls. XXXVIII and XXXIX were developed from survey and observations made June 10 to 18. They show the conditions then prevailing after the spring flood had built up the accretions above Dike 28 A' and some three months after the completion of the bank-head. Beginning March 8 and covering the time up to the date of the last survey a party was kept almost continuously employed in making surveys and collecting data for record and study of the changes that occurred in the vicinity of the bank-head. The reach covered by these observations finally extended from range 253 as far down as 245. Seven charts showing 1-foot contours and six showing float paths and velocities were developed from these surveys and tracings of them transmitted to you. Other charts showing partial profiles of bottom as developed from time to time at the bank-head on radial lines outside the outer wall were prepared and tracings submitted. These charts also showed the positions of the foot of the subaqueous slope of rock in the outer wall, as determined from time to time by means of a sounding lead, the end of which was cupped and filled with tallow. The accompanying chart (Pl. XL) presents about all of that data-the changes in bottom, at the structure, from a time prior to its construction to a time about three months after its completion. It also shows several positions assumed by the shore line as it receded. The cost of these operations is shown in detail in the Appendix, Exhibit H. MISCELLANEOUS. Projects with estimates of cost of work necessary to complete the improvement of Gasconade division and for continuing the work by the expenditure of $150,000 during the fiscal year were prepared in accordance with your instructions, and submitted under date of July 13. A report with estimates of cost of a new form of bank-head designed by yourself was prepared in accordance with instructions contained in your letter of June 15, and transmitted under date of June 28. Special reports and examinations.-A joint report with estimates of cost of a new form of dike was prepared by Mr. Samuel H. Yonge and myself in accordance with your instructions, and submitted under date of July 10. An examination, made by your direction December 22, of the river in the vicinity of Glasgow, Mo., for the purpose of determining whether a dike proposed to be built by local landowners could receive the sanction of the Commission, was reported on under date of December 30. An examination was made on December 30 of a reported break at the head of the Quindaro revetment, which threatened the safety of the pumping station of the Kansas City (Mo.) water department and the usefulness of the revetment. The matter was made the subject of a special report, dated January 2. Two other special examinations were made, as follows: January 14, of some piledike work placed by a private individual, adjoining the north bank of the river below Kansas City, Mo., about the possible effect of which complaints had been filed; and on the 25th of the same month, of the revetment on Nebraska City Island and the reach of the river in that vicinity, with a view of determining the necessity of immediate extension and protection of the work. The results of these examinations were submitted in reports dated January 22 and January 27, respectively. Experiments with dike models.- In January and February a number of models of two-row dike work on a scale of one-eighth with bracing in various forms and details were made and subjected to breaking strains. The form that gave the best result of all that were tried was that above described as having been used on dikes XI A and XI B. The cost of these experiments was $155.41. REDUCTION IN COST OF WORKS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF MISSOURI RIVER. As a result of the new forms of dikes which have been built this year a marked economy in the cost of such work has been effected that will become more apparent when the new work shall be constructed on a large enough scale to make fair comparison with previous practice. It now appears that even upon the comparatively small scale upon which the new work has been conducted that a saving of about 25 per cent has been effected. The actual cost of the experimental structure built was $11,265. The experience gained in building the structure has shown where a considerable part of this cost could be saved in building future structures upon the same general plan. A new plan has been devised which it is believed will be equally or more effective at an estimated cost for its construction of $6,000. At this cost, and supposing each bank head to protect an average of 4,000 feet of bank, the cost as compared with the method of continuous revetment would be as $6,000 to $28,000, or a little more than one-fifth. In closing I desire to acknowledge the support afforded me by my assistants and the unfailing interest and application to duty exhibited by all employees on the Gasconade division. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieut. Col. AMOS STICKNEY, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., S. WATERS Fox, Division Engineer. President Missouri River Commission. List of exhibits forming appendix to foregoing report. EXHIBIT A.-Bill of cost of complete revetment on Heckmann Island No. 3. D.-Bill of cost of bank-head, Chamois Bend. E.-Bill of expenditures on account of procuring willow brush. H.-Bill of cost of survey work. I.-Statement of liabilities incurred during fiscal year. EXHIBIT A. Bill of costs of 2,675 linear feet of complete revetment on Heckmann Island during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897. Classification and extent. Procuring 203.8 cords of brush, during previous fiscal year, at a total cost of $2.3646 per cord, delivered on work.. Procuring 1,046.2 cords of brush, at $2.2941 per cord, delivered on work.. Total cost, delivered on work, at $2.3056 per cord..... Procuring 7,677.2 cubic yards of rock ballast: Chamois quarry. 104.4 cubic yards, delivered on barges, at $0.7322... Total cost, delivered on work, at $1.0175 per cubic yard........ Cost in item. $481.91 2, 400.09 2,882.00 76.44 2,896.42 4,414. 50 Grading bank, 2,325 linear feet, containing 7,530 cubic yards of earth: Subsistence Supplies Total cost, at $0.0515 per cubic yard Anchorage of mattress (grading 201 trenches and digging dead-man holes): Towage, moving construction parties, their plant and supplies................. Grand total cost of 2,675 linear feet of revetment, at $6.34 per linear foot... There is included in this an item of $37 97 for clearing and grubbing. 424. 25 7, 811. 61 248.74 75.74 63.50 387.98 449.37 151.73 26. 15 627.25 1, 145. 16 120.60 1, 108. 30 410.53 2,784. 59 1,443. 87 542.67 1,986. 54 480.25 16,960.22 |