4. Bayou D'Arbonne, Louisiana.-The project for this improvement was adopted in 1884, and contemplates removing snags, logs, wrecks, leaning timber, etc., obstructing navigation from Stein Bluff, on the Corney Branch, to the mouth of D'Arbonne, 42 miles, at an estimated cost of $15,000.

The amount expended to June 30, 1891, was $10,109.49. Before the improvement commenced the bayou was navigable from six to seven months of the year. The work done extended the period of navigation fully one month, enabled boats of double the capacity to make quicker time than those used formerly, with greater safety, and reduced freight .rates one-half.

In the past fiscal year operations extended from Stein Bluff to the mouth, consisting chiefly of cutting and girdling leaning timber, cutting stumps, shore snags, and logs along the banks, and removing snags, logs, and stumps from the channel with explosives and blocks and tackle. The bayou was at a low stage while operations were in progress, and effective work was done, enabling boats to run at a lower stage of water, and to make the round trip in three to four hours less time.

The work is not permanent, as new obstructions are added from time to time, but with the balance of the original estimate in a single appropriation ($4,000) it can be completed to Stein Bluff so thoroughly as not to require attention for several years.

Within the last few years navigation of the Corney Branch has been extended up to Cobb Landing, 163 miles above Stein Bluff.

5. Bayou Bartholomew, Louisiana and Arkansas.-This improvement commenced in 1881, the project contemplating the removal of snags, logs, wrecks, leaning timber, etc., obstructing navigation between Baxter, Ark., and the mouth, about 150 miles.

The amount expended to June 30, 1891, was $30,753.44, and the outstanding liabilities were $347.60. With these amounts operations extended over the entire portion of the bayou included in the project, and some of the most obstructed parts were worked over two and three times, but at no time was the amount available sufficient to do the work thoroughly as projected. However, the work performed at intervals has benefited navigation to a great extent. Before the improvement commenced three months was the average duration of the navigable season; now there is better navigation for about six months, and boats of double the capacity make trips with greater safety in half the time; and rates of freight are reported to have been reduced 50 per cent.

The work begun at Portland, Ark., in May, 1891, was continued during the fiscal year from Hughes Place, La., down to the mouth, where operations suspended August 14, 1891, resulting in widening the channel from 20 to 30 feet, enabling steamboats to navigate on from 2 to 3 feet lower stage, and to make the round trip in twelve to fifteen hours' quicker time.

July 1, 1891, balance unexpended

June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year.

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended

July 1, 1892, outstanding liabilities

July 1, 1892, balance available.....

Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892.

Amount available for fiscal year ending June 30, 1893...

(See Appendix V 5.)

$2,246.56 1, 898.46

348. 10

.92

347. 18 5,000.00

5,347, 18

6. Bayou Bœuf (Bœuf River), Louisiana.-The project for improving this bayou was adopted in 1881, and contemplated removing snags, logs, leaning timber, etc., obstructing navigation between Wallace Landing and the mouth, about 152 miles. Three outlets near Point Jefferson, La., were examined in 1884 and their closure recommended.

The amount expended to June 30, 1891, was $26,028.68, enabling steamboats to run to Point Jefferson, 19 miles below Wallace Landing, during high stages, with greater safety. The three outlets were closed in 1887 and 1888, and the work gave immediate benefit to navigation by confining the flow to its natural direction and scouring the bars below, but the dams were destroyed during the overflow from the Mississippi River in the spring of 1890. It is essential that they be rebuilt if navigation in the bayou is to be maintained. The estimated cost of this work is $12,000.

The

In the past fiscal year a chopping party worked from the mouth of the bayou up to a point 93 miles above the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Bridge, September 28 to December 12, 1891. water remained at a low stage during the entire period, and effective work was done, which will enable steamboats to navigate this part of the stream with greater safety at any stage high enough to pass the bars, without danger of knocking down chimneys, damaging upper works, or losing freight in the leaning timber, saving at least thirtysix hours' time on the round trip, and permitting navigation at a 2-foot less stage.

A small balance was reserved to remove jams of drift if necessary. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended...........

June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended..

July 1, 1892, outstanding liabilities.

July 1, 1892, balance available

Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892..

Amount available for fiscal year ending June 30, 1893 (See Appendix V 6.)

$4,971.32

4,666.39

304.93

22.54

282.39 10,000.00

10, 282.39

7. Tensas River and Bayou Macon, Louisiana.-The project for improving Tensas River was adopted in 1881, and contemplated removing snags, logs, and leaning timber obstructing navigation between Dallas and its mouth, about 134 miles, at an estimated cost of $23,000. Bayou Macon, a tributary, was added under the same head of appropriation by act of 1884, and the project contemplated removing the same class of obstructions between Floyd and its mouth, about 98 miles, at an estimated cost of $17,000.

The amount expended to June 30, 1891, was $15,873.24, of which $7,529.25 had been applied to the Tensas and $8,343.99 to the Macon. The obstructions were removed as far as practicable with these amounts,

and in Bayou Macon, the principal commercial branch, had resulted in improved navigation so as to shorten the time of steamboat trips twelve hours.

In the past fiscal year the wreck of the steamboat H. J. Dickey was removed from Bayou Macon, near Delhi, La., December 17, 1891, and December 29-January 12 a chopping party was employed in removing obstructions, chiefly in the channel, from the lower 40 miles of Bayou Macon. This work was stopped by high water the latter date, and continued high stages to the end of the year preyented its resumption. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended

June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year.

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended

July 1, 1892, outstanding liabilities

July 1, 1892, balance available

Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892.

- Amount available for fiscal year ending June 30, 1893.

Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project....... Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867.

(See Appendix V 7.)

$5, 126.76 2, 107.40

3,019.36

.38

3, 018. 98

5,000.00

8,018. 98

14,000. 00

8. Bayous Rondeway and Vidal, Louisiana.-An appropriation of $1,000 was expended.in the fiscal year 1889 in removing obstructions, chiefly leaning trees, from the canal and the part of Bayou Vidal remaining open between Lake Palmyra (an old bend of the Mississippi) and the line of levee north of the lake. After completion of this work, the canal was claimed as private property, and the owner issued notice that tolls would be collected from passing boats, and for this reason it was recommended that the old mouth of the bayou, which was obstructed by leaning timber and fallen timber and stumps, be reopened to save the steamboat interests from such imposition.

The act of 1890 appropriated $1,000 for this purpose, but owing to high stages of the Mississippi the work was not begun until the latter part of June, 1891, when a chopping party commenced operations which were completed July 31, 1891, consisting of the removal of snags and logs and felling leaning timber.

9. Big Black River, Mississippi.-The original project for this improvement contemplated removing snags, logs, leaning timber, etc., obstructing navigation between Cox Ferry and the mouth, about 130 miles, at an estimated cost of $32,000.

The first appropriation, by act of 1884, $5,000, was applied to removing the principal obstructions for a distance of 75 miles above the

mouth.

The next appropriation, by act of 1886, contained the proviso that no part of the appropriation should be used until the State of Mississippi caused the bridges below the Vicksburg and Meridian Railroad to be so constructed as not to obstruct navigation.

The act of 1890 removed the restriction contained in the act of 1886, and the project was modified to include only the portion of the river below the Baldwin Bridge. Work was commenced in January, 1891, and continued, whenever the stages of water were favorable, until June 18, 1891. The principal work done was between Baldwin and Ivanhoe ferries, a distance of about 20 miles.

10. Yazoo River, Mississippi.—Work in this river was begun in 1873, and the project contemplated removing wrecks, snags, logs, leaning timber, etc., obstructing navigation the entire length of the river. New obstructions, caused by floods, sliding and caving banks, etc., are brought into the river every year, and no estimates for permanent improvement are given on this account.

The total amount expended to June 30, 1891, was $201,679.72 (including $23.69 outstanding liabilities on that date), part of which was applied to constructing the snag boat Meigs, the purchase of a pumping dredge, and to the survey of the mouth and lower river. Prior to improvement the river was obstructed by a large number of wrecks, snags, and leaning timber that limited the period of navigation. Nine of the steamboats sunk during the war of the rebellion were removed by contract in 1873-74, and snag boats have operated since whenever funds were available, benefiting low-water navigation greatly, and keeping the river in navigable condition from head to mouth the year around. In the past fiscal year the snag boat Meigs was employed during the low-water season in removing obstructions from the channel, and did effective work, putting the stream in good navigable condition, but as new snags and tree slides are brought in by every high stage of water operations will have to be continued for many years.

The shifting bar at the mouth of the river is the most serious obstruction to navigation, and boats that could navigate the principal streams of the Yazoo Valley system (about 800 miles) without hindrance are prevented at low stages from entering or leaving without lightening, and at times navigation across the bar is closed altogether. The act of 1890 directed that $5,000 of the appropriation for Yazoo River be used in making a survey from the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway bridge to the mouth, to determine in what manner the mouth can be improved to permit free passage of vessels at all seasons of the year, and to include an investigation of the feasibility and advantage of making a new outlet for the river by way of Chickasaw Bayou, or otherwise, with an estimate of cost. This survey was begun in October, 1890, and continued until high water compelled suspension December 6, and the river remained high until September, 1891, when field work was completed. Maps and reports were prepared and submitted February 4, 1892. The report was transmitted to Congress and printed as House Ex. Doc. No. 125, Fifty-second Congress, first session (see also Ap

pendix V 10). The improvement proposed contemplates the formation. of a new outlet from the former mouth of Yazoo on Old River, through the deep water in Old River, across the low lands between Long and Barnett lakes to Lake Centennial, around the head of De Soto Island, along the front of Vicksburg, and entering the Mississippi River on the channel side at Kleinston. The total cost of this work is estimated at $1,500,000.

11. Tchula Lake, Mississippi.—This work commenced in 1881, and the project contemplated removing snags, logs, leaning timber, etc., obstructing navigation, to permit light-draft boats to enter the lake earlier in the season.

The amount expended to June 30, 1891, was $11,413.77, resulting in clearing the greater portion of the leaning timber from the banks, and in the removal of the main obstructions from the channel, giving greater safety to the passage of steamboats through the lake.

In the past fiscal year operations consisted of clearing the brush, which had grown so rapidly and to such extent that in many places the clear channel did not exceed 50 feet in width; cutting shore snags and logs, felling and girdling leaning timber on both banks, and removing snags from the channel. This work was carried from the head of the lake down to within 15 miles of the mouth.

July 1, 1891, balance unexpended

June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year.

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended...

July 1, 1892, outstanding liabilities

$3,586.23 3,556. 82

29.41 9.00

July 1, 1892, balance available

Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892. .

Amount available for fiscal year ending June 30, 1893.. (See Appendix V 11.)

20.41 3,000.00

3, 020. 41

12. Tallahatchee River, Mississippi.-This improvement was begun in 1879, and contemplated removing snags, sunken logs, and leaning timber, obstructing low-water navigation below the mouth of Coldwater River, about 100 miles, and the removal of a wreck in the channel near the mouth. The estimated cost of the work was $40,000, if completed in two seasons.

The amount expended to June 30, 1891, was $35,468.98, of which $10,000 was required by law to be expended above the mouth of Coldwater (a part of the river in which there has been no navigation since the war, and which was not included in the project). The work done resulted in great benefit to navigation below Sharkey Landing, a distance of about 65 miles, enabling steamboats to run to that place the year round, while before the improvement commenced there was navigation for only about six months of the year. Little work was done