It had formerly a depth of 123 feet, mean low water, at the mouth, gradually decreasing to 4 feet at the head.

The original project for improvement, adopted in 1880, but modified in 1883, provided for a channel 200 feet wide and 21 to 22 feet deep, mean low water, extending from the mouth up to Vernon Avenue Bridge, and from that point up to the head of navigation on both branches, a channel decreasing from 175 feet to 100 feet in width, and from 18 feet to 10 feet in depth, at an estimated cost of $255,569.

The amount expended up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $136,026.07. At that date the channel from the entrance to Vernon avenue bridge was 175 feet wide at the entrance and 150 feet wide near the bridge, and 21 feet deep. The channel from Vernon Avenue Bridge to Central Oil Works was 80 feet wide and 18 feet deep; from Central Oil Works to Queens County Oil Works, 25 feet wide and 15 feet deep; from Queens County Oil Works to Penny Bridge, 25 feet wide and 12 feet deep. The channel from Maspeth avenue to Metropolitan avenue was 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep, mean low water. In the English Kills branch the channel was 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep from Nichols's Chemical Works to a point 700 feet to the eastward.

The amount expended during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $12,554.08, and was applied in dredging 15,648 cubic yards of material in the reach from Central Oil Works to Penny Bridge, to gain depths varying from 12 to 15 feet, mean low water. A survey made in April, 1892, shows that the depths in the various reaches have materially decreased by shoaling since work was suspended. At that date the channel from the entrance to Vernon Avenue Bridge was 175 feet wide and 18 feet deep, mean low water; the channel from Vernon Avenue Bridge to Central Oil Works was 80 feet wide and 16 feet deep; from Central Oil Works to Queens County Oil Works, 50 feet wide and 14 feet deep, and from Queens County Oil Works to Penny Bridge, 50 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The channel from Maspeth avenue to Metropolitan avenue is 100 feet wide and 9 feet deep, mean low water. In the English Kills branch the channel is 100 feet wide and 8 feet deep from Nichols's Chemical Works to a point 700 feet to the eastward.

The cause of the habitual shoalings immediately following dredging is the absence of bulkheads to confine the banks.

The existing channel is not adequate in width or depth to the demands of commerce, and the adopted project for improvement should be completed as early as practicable by methods which will carry the improvement progressively from the mouth to the head of navigation. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended..

June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended....

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 E 7.)

$13, 605.94 12,554.08

1, 051.86 35,000.00

36, 051.86

78,000.00

8. Buttermilk Channel, New York Harbor.-Buttermilk Channel lies between the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Governors Island, New York Harbor, and was formerly obstructed at its upper end, where it joins the East River, by a shoal, over which there was a least depth of 92

feet at mean low water. The crest of this shoal lay about 800 feet distant from the line of the Brooklyn wharves.

The original project of improvement, adopted in 1881, provided for the removal to a depth of 26 feet, mean low water, of such parts of the shoal as came within 850 feet of the Brooklyn wharves, which would take off the crest of the shoal and give elsewhere a depth of not less than 15 feet, mean low water.

The estimated cost of the improvement was $210,000. In view of the increasing importance of the wharves on the Brooklyn shores and the difficulty experienced by deep-draft vessels in getting up to them by reason of this shoal, the project of improvement was modified in 1885 so as to provide for the removal of the entire shoal to a depth of 26 feet, mean low water, at an estimated additional cost of $150,000, making the total estimated cost of the project $360,000.

The amount expended to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $321,926.56, and was applied in dredging. The shoal had been entirely removed to a depth of 26 feet, mean low water.

The amount expended during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $12,051.98, and was applied to payment of liabilities outstanding at the beginning of the fiscal year.

There is a balance of $24,843.25 remaining from the appropriation of September 19, 1890, available for application toward the further improvement of Buttermilk Channel by excavation from the shoal opposite Red Hook Point. This balance and the appropriation of $100,000 made by the river and harbor act of July 13, 1892, will be applied in widening and deepening the existing channel at the southern entrance as far as the funds available will permit. The improved depth will be 26 feet at mean low water.

July 1, 1891, balance unexpended

June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year.

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended..........

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 and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867.

(See Appendix E 8.)

9. Gowanus Bay, New York-Red Hook, Gowanus Creek and Bay Ridge channels.-Gowanus Bay is a part of New York Harbor, lying at the mouth of Gowanus Creek, in the southwestern part of the city of Brooklyn.

The depth of water in the channel of Gowanus Creek and Bay was originally only from 7 to 12 feet at mean low water, which was wholly insufficient for the passage of vessels employed in the commerce of the district.

The plan of improvement, adopted in 1881, provided for a depth of 18 feet to the channels in the bay leading up to the mouth of the creek on both the north and south sides, and for carrying the improvement with the same depth up the creek to Hamilton Avenue Bridge, a distance of 1 mile.

The channel's widths were to be 200 feet, except for the last few hundred feet up to the bridge, in which distance the width would gradually decrease.

The estimated cost of this improvement was $192,564.90.

The project of 1881 was modified in 1888 by increasing the depth to 21 feet and the width to 400 feet, while to facilitate the handling of vessels in the contracted space near the mouth of Gowanus Creek more room was provided for by cutting away the angle on the south side at an estimated total cost of $600,000.

The amount expended on the Red Hook and Gowanus Creek channels up to June 30, 1891, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $155,004.99. At that date this channel, from the entrance to Erie Basin to Twentyeighth street, was 150 feet wide and 21 feet deep, mean low water; thence to the foot of Percival street, 100 feet wide and 21 feet deep, and the triangular slips at the foot of Court, Bryant, and Smith streets, had been dredged to 21 feet.

The improvement of Bay Ridge channel, extending from Twentyeighth street south and west to Sixtieth street, south shore, which, under the project of 1881 was suspended in 1884, was resumed in May, 1891, under a specific appropriation of $100,000 contained in the river and harbor act of September 19, 1890, which provided for a channel 400 feet wide and 21 feet deep. Up to June 30, 1891, the sum of $18,450.15, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, had been expended under contract. At that date the improved channel, beginning at Fortysecond street, had been carried north a distance of 1,800 feet, 30 feet wide and 21 feet deep, and south a distance of 650 feet, 35 feet wide and 21 feet deep.

The amount expended during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, on the Red Hook and Gowanus Creek channels, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $39,081.95, and was applied in removing 154,918 cubic yards of material under contract. When work was suspended, on exhaustion of appropriation, May 17, 1892, this channel, from the entrance to Erie Basin to Twenty-eighth street, was 230 feet wide and 21 feet deep, mean low water, and thence to the foot of Twenty-third street, 150 feet wide and 21 feet deep, mean low. water.

The amount expended on the Bay Ridge Channel during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $95,833.35, and was applied in removing 365,025 cubic yards of material under contract. When work was suspended on exhaustion of appropriation, June 18, 1892, this channel was 120 feet wide and 21 feet deep, mean low water, from Twenty-eighth street south to Thirty-ninth street; thence 90 feet wide and 21 feet deep to Sixtieth street, opposite Bay Ridge.

The beds of both channels have been lowered from 5 to 15 feet, and as the material removed has been sand, the banks, having no confining bulkheads, have correspondingly increased their slopes, causing the unstable material to slide into the channels and reduce their depths.

The channels also suffer from deposits carried down from Gowanus Canal, and from deposits brought in from outlying shoals by the waves. These sources of degradation will be appreciably exhausted only when permanent bulkheads are built along both shores to hold the soft and unstable banks.

Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project...... $281, 400.00 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and

harbor acts of 1866 and 1867.

(See Appendix E 9.)

10. New York Harbor, New York.-Before the improvement of the main entrance into New York Harbor was undertaken by the United States, the least depth in mid-channel on the bar was 23.7 feet at mean low water, and the same was the limiting depth across three other shoals between the bar and deep water in the harbor.

A large proportion of the vast commerce of the port which is carried on in vessels of great draft could only cross these shoals at or near high water.

The project for the improvement of Gedney Channel was approved by the Secretary of War in December, 1884, and its extension to cover the whole of the main entrance to the harbor received his approval December 27, 1886. It provides for dredging a channel 1,000 feet wide and 30 feet deep at mean low water, from deep water below the Narrows through the Main Ship Channel and Gedney Channel to deep water outside the bar; maintaining this channel, should it be necessary, either by periodical dredging or by contracting the entrance by the construction of a dike running across the shoals from the Coney Island side, with suitable protection for the head of Sandy Hook to prevent its being scoured away by the increased current.

The estimated cost of obtaining the dredged channel was $1,490,000 for dredging 4,300,000 cubic yards, and the entire cost of the improvement should the contraction works prove to be necessary was estimated at between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000.

Under this project an extended survey of the lower bay was made, on which the method of improvement was based.

The total amount expended to June 30, 1891, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $1,406,188.89.

At that time Gedney Channel and Bayside Channel (east and west) were practically completed, having a depth of 30 feet, mean low water, for the full projected width of 1,000 feet.

The Main Ship Channel from Buoy No. 10 north to Buoy No. 12 had then a depth of 30 feet, mean low water, for a width varying from 500 to 800 feet, and a depth of 28 feet for a width of 1,000 feet throughout. From Buoy No. 12 northward to deep water below the Narrows there was then a 30-foot channel not previously improved, 400 feet wide, and a 28-foot 1,000 feet wide. The 30-foot channel had a least width of 400 feet from deep water below Buoy No. 10, Lower Bay, to deep water below the Narrows, a distance of 22,000 feet, and there was a 28-foot channel, 1,000 feet wide, throughout the entire length of this reach,

The riprap sea wall authorized by the Chief of Engineers February 20, 1890, for the protection of the north shore of Sandy Hook was built from a point 375 feet east of Jetty No. 4, westward to a point 200 feet west of Jetty No. 10, a total distance of 2,375 feet.

The amount expended during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $95,375.95. The contract with The Joseph Edwards Dredging Company, dated February 16, 1891, for the removal of 500,000 cubic yards of material was completed October 10, 1891. During the fiscal year there was removed 213,268 cubic yards from the Main Ship Channel from Buoy No. 12 (Southwest Spit) northward to deep water below the Narrows, nearly opposite Buoy No. 11, and the channel at the time work was suspended, October 10, 1891, had a width of 1,000 feet and a depth of 30 feet, mean low water, from

deep water below the Narrows to deep water beyond the bar. "Detailed surveys of all the improved channels were made during November and December, 1891, and January, 1892, and the results showed that the improved depths have been maintained without appreciable deterioration.

Baxter Ledge, a narrow ledge of rock lying in the entrance to Kill van Kull from Upper New York Bay, northeast from St. George, Staten Island, and having over it originally a least depth of 18 feet, mean low water, was successfully removed to 25.5 feet, mean low water, using the United States plant connected with the East River and Hell Gate improvement.

Under the contract with John Satterlee, dated March 26, 1891, 3,110 tons of large stone were delivered and placed in position in the riprap sea wall for the protection of the north shore of Sandy Hook. This wall is now 2,575 feet long, extending from Jetty No. 1 westward to a point 119 feet westward of Jetty No. 11.

11. Raritan Bay, New Jersey.-Raritan Bay forms the western part of the large triangular bay inclosed between Sandy Hook, the New Jersey shore, and Staten Island.

The channel undergoing improvement lies to the southeast of Seguine Point on the south shore of Staten Island. At the time of the original survey, August, 1880, the least depth on the shoal lying between the 21-foot curve at Seguine Point and the 21-foot curve at the head of the bay was 14 feet, mean low water. The project of improvement, based upon the survey, provided for a channel across the shoal 300 feet wide and 21 feet deep, mean low water, at an estimated cost of $126,500.

The project was enlarged in 1885, providing for a channel of equal width and depth over the shoals in the vicinity of Ward Point, Staten Island, where the original depth was 18 feet, mean low water, giving a navigable channel 21 feet deep, mean low water, up to Perth Amboy; and further providing for a channel 300 feet wide and 15 feet deep, mean low water, from Great Beds Light to South Amboy, where the original depth was 123 feet, mean low water, at an estimated total cost of $240,500, for the two works from the beginning, which estimate was again increased in 1888 to $246,500, to provide for the removal of deposits which had taken place in the interval of three years.

The channel from deep water at the head of Raritan Bay past Seguine Point to Perth Amboy exceeds 5 miles in length, is crooked, and is subject to constant shoalings. As the amount appropriated any one year for the execution of the project has been much less than the estimated cost of the improvement, and as the channel excavated under each appropriation has been impaired by shoaling in a greater or less degree before work could be resumed under the succeeding appropriations, the original estimates for this improvement have little value and can not be used for determining the amount required for completing the project at this date. The cost of completing the project, if all the