Improvement of Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. Nothing has been done here during the past fiscal year, and no work is contemplated during the next. The small amount of funds available at the beginning of the year has been expended in closing up the work and office expenses. MONEY STATEMENT. July 1, 1877, amount available.. July 1, 1878, amount expended during fiscal year. $30 14 30 14 Improvement of Block Island Harbor, Rhode Island. Block Island is situated about 12 miles from the nearest point on the mainland. Its nearest natural harbor is in Narragansett Bay, some 25 miles distant. The island is about 9 miles long and about 4 wide in its widest part. Its population is about 1,400. The improvement sought was the building of a harbor for larger boats than were heretofore used by the fishermen, and for such as would be employed in bringing coal, lumber, &c., and for otherwise facilitating communication between the island and the mainland. At the beginning of the present fiscal year the main work had been built out to a point 1,325 feet from the shore and the inner harbor with an inclosed area of about 14 acres, and seven feet depth at mean low water, completed. At that time stone was being put into the work by Messrs. P. Harrington & Co., of Groton, Conn., under contract at $1.29 per ton. They continued until the completion of their contract, November 30, 1877, having put in from the first 34,268.73 tons; of this amount 25,227.38 tons were put in from July 1 to November 30. They were enabled to put in this large amount in so short a time by employing a large number of vessels and getting the stone from two or three quarries. The building of a detached piece gave them places to unload three or more vessels at the same time. During August and a part of September a vessel with divers was employed in removing bowlders from the anchorage sheltered by the breakwater. There were removed 517 tons at a cost of $2.20 per ton for those up to 10 tons, and $6 per ton for those in excess of this size. The condition of the work at the close of the season was as follows: The breakwater extending out 1,425 feet from the shore, an opening of 200 feet, and then a detached pier 300 feet in length, the first 50 feet in prolongation of the main work, the second 50 feet on a line making an angle of 15 degrees to the left, and the remaining 200 feet on a line making an angle to the left of 15 degrees with the second 50 feet. Our experience in the construction of the work thus far has shown that whenever large quantities of stone have been put in during the season of mild weather it has always been displaced and settled down by the storms of winter. This had occurred while the work was in much shoaler water than that built during last season. In view of this probability, sufficient funds were reserved to build up the work after the storms of the winter. Number. During the winter there occurred several quite severe storms, but on the 10th of January an unusually severe one visited this section. At the time of highwater the waves rolled in over the beach in the angle to the east of the inner harbor with sufficient height and force to carry stone weighing 40 to 50 pounds over the parapet of the east crib into the basin. This parapet is about 8 feet above mean high water. An examination of the work in April showed that the head of the main work and the detached piece, all built last season, had been settled down considerably by these storms. The greater part of the change of form and settling seemed to be confined to the outer or most exposed ends of the work. It was estimated that it would require 3,000 tons to build this up to the required height and form. Advertisement inviting proposals to furnish and place this stone was made April 25, 1878, and on the 25th of May the following were received: Abstract of proposals received at the Engineer Office, United States Army, Newport, R. 1., May 25, 1878, at 10 a. m., for riprap granite for breakwater at Block Island, R. I. Complete. The contract was awarded to the lowest bidder, Mr. Francis H. Smith, of New York, at $1.14 per ton. Work was commenced in the latter part of the month, and up to the 30th about 275 tons had been put in. It is expected that the contract will be completed by August 31, 1878. This will complete the breakwater for a harbor for local purposes at a cost of $285,000. We have been enabled to do this at a much less cost than estimated, by dispensing with the cut stone, using only riprap granite, and by reason of the fall in prices for such work. Block Island is in the Newport collection district, which place is a port of entry. The revenue collected during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, is $1,466.41. Improvement of Pawcatuck River, Rhode Island and Connecticut. No work has been done here during the past fiscal year, and none is contemplated during the next. The small amount of funds available at the beginning of the year has been expended in closing up the work and in office expenses. MONEY STATEMENT. July 1, 1877, amount available... July 1, 1878, amount expended during the fiscal year. $101 97 101 97 Improvement of Little Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island and Connecticut. This bay lies between Stonington, in the State of Connecticut, and Watch Hill, in Rhode Island. It is entered from Fisher's Island Sound, and it receives the waters of Pawcatuck River, at the head of navigation of which are the flourishing towns of Pawcatuck, Conn., and Westerly, R. I., with their mills and fine granite quarries. The general government has already dredged a channel-way in the river up to these towns, 75 feet wide, 5 feet deep at mean lowwater, and 8 feet deep at mean high-water. The entrance to the bay is deep, but a shoal extends all across its wider portion, which cannot be passed at mean low-water with vessels drawing more than 4 feet or 7 feet at mean high water, and it was besides obstructed with dangerous rocks. The bay was surveyed by authority of the general government in 1875, and is reported on, with project for improvement, in Annual Report of Chief of Engineers for 1876, Part 1, pp. 217-221. The project was for a channel 73 feet deep at mean low water, and 200 feet wide, together with the removal of the dangerous rocks. The reason for making it deeper than the channel made in the river is to enable vessels to pass it in the earlier stages of the tide, and thus insure reaching Westerly on the crest of the tide-wave. The estimated cost was $51,000. The act of Congress approved August 14, 1876, appropriated $5,000 to begin this improvement, but the expenditure was not ordered until May, 1877. Of this amount $1,500 was set aside for superintendence and for removing dangerous rocks near Rhodes' Folly by hired labor, and $3,500 for making the proposed channel near Pawcatuck Point, by contract with the lowest responsible bidder. Pawcatuck Point was selected because part of the material to be removed from the place was known to be bowlders, while all the other parts were soft diging. It was desirable to test the feasibility of the whole plan at once by operations upon the most difficult part. There was the additional reason that if a channel were opened here it would be available with nearly as much water in other parts as the route heretofore used and with better steering ranges and less dangers. It is reported in the last annual report (Part 1, page 204) that the contract had been awarded to W. H. Molthrop, of New London, Conn., to remove the material, including bowlders of a size not exceeding one cubic yard, at the rate of 30 cents per cubic yard, and all bowlders of a greater size at the rate of $5 per cubic yard. The dangerous rocks near Rhodes' Folly having upon them a less depth than 7 feet at mean low-water, have all been removed by hired labor. The amount was 131 cubic yards. One rock weighing, probably, 150 tons, had to be blasted, and the pieces, as well as the other rocks, were lifted by scows under the action of the rising tide. Work near Pawcatuck Point was begun July 4, 1877, by a very poor dredging machine, which two days after hauled off for repairs. Another dredge was obtained September 24, and this continued until December 17, when work was abandoned for the winter. The time of completion was extended from November 30, 1877, to June 30, 1878. The dredge resumed work on the 3d of June and continued till the 17th of that month, when her boiler burst, fortunately without serious injury to the crew. Nearly all the work had now been done that the funds would pay for, and the object of testing the character of the excavation having been accomplished, I regarded the contract as completed. Two cuts, having a combined width of 34 feet, have been made across the shoal at the point, and another cut about one-third of the way in the part where the dredging is easiest. A ridge of bowlders was encountered running across the new channel, having a width of about 50 feet. About half of these were larger and the other half smaller than one cubic yard. About 69 cubic yards of the large size were removed at $5 per yard. The other material removed amounted to 4,015 cubic yards at 30 cents. The new channel is too narrow to be of any use as yet. It is proposed to expend the appropriation of $10,000, approved June 18, 1878, along with the remainder of the former appropriation, in completing the channel opposite to Pawcatuck Point to the width of 200 feet and depth of 7 feet at mean lowwater, and to commence the deepening of the channel west of this, if there is money enough. The original estimate was for $51,000, of which $15,000 has been appropriated. The remainder, $36,000, is asked for the next fiscal year. This improvement is in both the collection districts of Providence, R. I., and Stonington, Conn. The revenue collected at the first named during the last fiscal year is $171,553.79. In October and November, 1877, a set of tide observations was made to verify the mean low water plane at Watch Hill, established in making the survey in 1875. The difference in the mean rise and fall of tide was 8 foot. The bench-mark at Pawcatuck Point, to which mean low water is referred, is a bolt in the south face of the largest bowlder on the southwest side of Pawcatuck Point, at the low water line. It is 3.07 feet above mean low water. Simultaneous observations were made at Westerly and Pawcatuck Point to get a mean low water for the upper part of the Pawcatuck River, the bench-mark to which the old mean low water plane was referred having been carried away by ice. The new bench-mark is the top of the cap-log at southeast corner of Cottrell and Babcock's Wharf, Pawcatuck. It is marked [B M], and is 5.19 feet above mean low-water. This improvement has been superintended by Mr. H. A. Bentley, Assistant Engineer. The following is a table of observations made at Pawcatuck Point: Amount appropriated by act approved June 18, 1878. . $ 5,000 00 $15,000 00 July 1, 1878, amount expended during fiscal year... 4,320 62 July 1, 1878, amount available... 10,679 38 Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project..... Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1880.... 36,000 00 36,000 00 C. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF PROVIDENCE IN RELATION TO THE HARBOR LINE AT FIELD'S POINT. No. 67. Message of the Mayor, relative to the widening of the channel at Field's Point. [Presented February 10, 1879.] CITY OF PROVIDENCE, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Gentlemen of the City Council: CITY HALL, February 10, 1879. I transmit herewith copy of a communication received from the Board of Harbor Commissioners, in relation to the widening of the channel at Field's Point, |