across the bar at the mouth of the river, another cut was made across the bar between Manatee and Braidentown, and a survey and map of the river were made. The cut at the mouth had been nearly obliterated, but a channel 8 feet deep and of sufficient width existed from Tampa Bay to Manatee. By the act approved September 19, 1890, $6,000 was appropriated for continuing the improvement, which amount was supplemented by a further appropriation of $6,000, made by the act approved July 13, 1892. With the $12,000 thus available extensive repairs were made to the United States steam snag and dredge boat Suwanee, with a view of better adapting it to this work. It is proposed to dredge a channel 12 feet deep at mean low water, and 100 feet wide, through the bulkhead at Sneads Point. Work was begun in June, 1893. One thousand three hundred and eighty-nine cubic yards (measured in place) was removed, and it is expected that the work will be completed before December, 1893.

Further and larger appropriations will be necessary before work can be begun on the outer bar.

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended

Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892..

June 30, 1893, amount expended during fiscal year....

July 1, 1893, balance unexpended....

July 1, 1893, outstanding liabilities..

July 1, 1893, balance available.....

Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project. Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1895 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867 and of sundry civil act of March 3, 1893. (See Appendix O 11.)

$6, 021.87 6,000.00

12, 021.87 7,574.58

4, 447. 29 991.64

3, 455. 65

33,000.00 15,000. 00

12. Tampa Bay, Florida.-The harbor at Tampa Bay, at the head of one arm of this bay, was separated from deep water by a flat 2 miles wide. Through this was a narrow channel with an average available depth of about 5 feet, formed by the waters of Hillsboro River.

The original project was adopted in 1879, and had for its object the formation of a 9-foot channel, 150 feet wide in the bay and 200 feet wide in the river, from the 9-foot curve in the bay to the wharves at Tampa, in Hillsboro River.

Up to June 30, 1892, $109,995.36 had been expended. The work consisted entirely of dredging and rock excavation, and extended over a distance of 8,200 feet, making a cut varying in width from 200 feet in the river to 60 feet in the bay. On June 30, 1887, it had a depth along its center line of from 8.3 to 9 feet. The depth on the flats beyond the outer extremity of the cut is 7 feet. In 1888 the project was modified. Port Tampa, 9 miles from Tampa, on Old Tampa Bay, had become the deep-water port of Tampa. The modified project is to form and maintain a channel 8 feet deep in Hillsboro Bay and Hillsboro River to the city of Tampa, and a channel 20 feet deep and 200 feet wide from the outer bar to Port Tampa. By June 30, 1892, the channel called for by the project had been completed in Old Tampa Bay, and a continuous channel 8 to 9 feet deep and 70 feet wide had been secured from the mouth of Hillsboro River to the 8-foot contour in Hillsboro Bay.

Work under the appropriation made in act of September 19, 1890, was continued until July 31, 1892, when the available funds were ex

hausted. Work under the appropriation made in act of July 13, 1892, was begun January 9, 1893, and was completed June 3, 1893. During the year 932.2 cubic yards of rock and 30,237.9 cubic yards of sand were removed from the channel. The channel is now 200 feet wide in the river and from 75 to 100 feet wide in the bay.

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended

Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892

June 30, 1893, amount expended during fiscal year..................

July 1, 1893, balance unexpended
July 1, 1893, outstanding liabilities

July 1, 1893, balance available.... (See Appendix O 12.)

$10, 004. 64 10,000.00

20, 004. 64 16, 779.25

3,225.39 3,200. 71

24.68

13. Withlacoochee River, Florida.-This river is 120 miles long and has a normal width varying from 75 to 180 feet, though at numerous points a defined channel is almost lost in broad marshy lakes and cypress swamps. The low-water depth varied from 1 to 7 feet. Before improvement the river was so obstructed by shoals, loose rocks, snags, fallen trees, floating grass islands, and bars as to be practically impassable excepting in isolated reaches.

The river was examined with a view to its improvement in 1879. The approved project calls for the removal of snags, overhanging trees, loose rocks, and some of the worst shoals between the Gulf of Mexico and Pemberton Ferry, a distance of about 77 miles, so as to permit boats of 2 feet draft to navigate the river during one-half the year.

Prior to June 30, 1891, the river had been cleared and made navigable, as called for by the project, between Pemberton Ferry and Dunnellon. Work was still required on some of the ledges in order to make navigation safe. Work was also required below Dunnellon.

The amount expended up to June 30, 1892, was $21,049.26.

In the act approved September 19, 1890, $5,400 was appropriated for continuing the improvement. Work under this appropriation was begun March 23, 1892. On account of the very low stage of the river the United States snag and dredge boat Suwanee could not be taken up where the work was most required. The boat was laid up and a party formed from the crew, and the work of removing obstructions was carried on from the small boats and from the banks.

During the last fiscal year operations were continued until the money available was exhausted. The channel is now practically clear from Pemberton Ferry to the mouth.

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended....

June 30, 1893, amount expended during fiscal year.

July 1, 1893, balance unexpended...............

Amount (estimated) required for maintenance of existing project.... Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1895 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867 and of sundry civil act of March 3, 1893. (See Appendix O 13.)

$2,850.74 2, 839. 29

11.45

800.00

800.00

14. Harbor at Cedar Keys, Fla.-The improvement of this harbor has been carried on from time to time under various appropriations made since 1872. It was obstructed by a shoal, known as the middle ground, lying in the main ship channel opposite War Key, and by shoals elsewhere in the channel and at its outer extremity. At these ENG 93-14

points the general channel depth of 12 feet was reduced from 7 or 9 feet by outcropping rocks with sand and shells.

The existing project for the improvement has for its object to forma a channel 200 feet wide and 103 feet deep through these shoals. Work under this project has been carried on under various appropriations made since 1884. The total expenditure up to June 30, 1892, was $21,794.09. A clear channel of the required depth from the gulf up to Cedar Keys had been obtained. Near Buoy No. 12 and in the middle ground the width was insufficient. Some further dredging was done in the middle ground. When work stopped the cut there had a width of 200 feet and a least depth of 94 feet. Along its east side the depth was 10 feet. In the act approved September 19, 1890, $2,500 was appropriated for this harbor, with the provision that a portion could be expended at Derrick Island Gap on the inside channel from Suwanee River. The project for this portion of the improvement is to obtain a channel 5 feet deep at mean low water from the harbor of Cedar Keys to the Suwanee Basin.

The work was done with the United States steam snag and dredge boat Suwanee. When operations ceased, owing to the exhaustion of the appropriation, a channel had been dredged in the vicinity of Derrick Island Gap 1,196 feet long, 374 feet wide, and 6 feet deep.

There were no operations during the past fiscal year, no funds being available, and further appropriations are not at present recommended, the present commercial requirements being fully met by the existing condition of the harbor, excepting as far as the inside passage between the town of Cedar Keys and the mouth of the Suwanee River is concerned, the channel in the vicinity of Derrick Island Gap being still incomplete.

July 1, 1892, balance unexpended..

June 30, 1893, amount expended during fiscal year..

July 1, 1893, balance unexpended

$205.91

194.61

11.30

Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project...... 44,000. 00 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867.

(See Appendix O 14.)

15. Suwanee River, Florida.-The length of river under improvement is 130 miles. From the Derrick Gap entrance to Branford, a distance of 80 miles, the width of the river varies from 250 to 300 feet, and its original low-water depth from 3 to 30 feet. It was but little obstructed excepting at the mouth. Between Branford and Ellaville the general width is 325 feet. It was obstructed by many dangerous rock shoals, crossed by crooked channels, which had a low-water depth of from 1.5 to 3 feet, as well as by snags and overhanging trees.

A project for this improvement was adopted in 1880. It contemplates the formation of a channel 150 feet wide and 5 feet deep from the Gulf (through the bars at the passes) as far up the river as New Branford (Roland Bluff). From there to Ellaville the channel is to be 60 feet wide and 4 feet deep.

Up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, $40,761.67 had been expended on this improvement. A long cut, now partly obliterated, had been made through the shoals between the mouth and deep water of the Gulf of Mexico, and a practicable but not safe channel had been opened as far as Hudson.

The channel between Branford and Luraville has been widened and deepened so that a channel, safe during medium and high stages and

fairly safe and 3 feet deep at the lowest stages, now exists as far as Hudson, 15 miles below Ellaville. The channel across the Suwanee basin was partially opened and was marked with palmetto piles.

Operations under the appropriation of $3,000 made in act of July 13, 1892, will be commenced as soon as the services of the United States snag and dredge boat Suwanee become available, the boat having undergone extensive repairs with a view to better adapting it to the work along the Gulf coast of Florida.

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

Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892..

June 30, 1893, amount expended during fiscal year..

July 1, 1893, balance unexpended................

Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1895 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867 and of sundry civil act of March 3, 1893. (See Appendix O 15.)

$238.33 3,000.00

3, 238.33

1, 880.44

1,357.89

21, 158. 00

10,000.00

EXAMINATION MADE IN COMPLIANCE WITH RIVER AND HARBOR ACT APPROVED JULY 13, 1892.

The preliminary examination of harbor at Cape Canaveral, Florida, required by act of July 13, 1892, was made by the local engineer, Maj. J. C. Mallery, Corps of Engineers, and his report thereon, dated September 28, 1892, was submitted through the division engineer, Col. William P. Craighill, Corps of Engineers. It is the opinion of Maj. Mallery, concurred in by this office, that a harbor at Cape Canaveral is worthy of improvement by the General Government. Col. Craighill states that he considers a harbor at this point a very desirable improvement and worthy of being undertaken by the United States, unless the proposed survey should show it to be a work of very great expense out of proportion to the interests involved. The cost of a survey necessary for preparation of project and estimate of cost of improvement is estimated at $2,500. The report was transmitted to Congress and printed as House Ex. Doc. No. 54, Fifty-second Congress, second session. (See also Appendix O 16.)

IMPROVEMENT OF RIVERS AND HARBORS IN WESTERN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA AND IN EASTERN ALABAMA.

This district was in the charge of Capt. Philip M. Price, Corps of Engineers, with Lieut. William E. Craighill, Corps of Engineers, under his immediate orders; Division Engineer, Col. C. B. Comstock, Corps of Engineers.

1. Apalachicola Bay, Florida.-In 1879 there was a minimum depth of 3 feet in the channel over the bar at the mouth of the Apalachicola River.

The bar begins about one-half mile below the town of Apalachicola, Fla., and is at about 7,300 feet wide between the 8-foot curves.

In 1879 a plan of improvement was adopted which contemplated dredging through the bar a straight channel 11 feet deep and 100 feet wide, to be afterwards increased to 200 feet should the first cut produce results to warrant it.

In 1891 this project was amended to include dredging a straight channel through Bulkhead Shoal 9 feet deep and not less than 100 feet wide.

Up to June 30, 1892, the sum of $106,951.32 had been expended on this improvement in dredging a straight channel through the bar at the mouth of the Apalachicola River at various times since 1881, and in dredging a channel about 4,000 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 9 feet in depth across Bulkhead Shoal in 1891-'92. With the appropriations available the dredged cut through the bar had never exceeded 90 feet in width and 93 feet in depth, and had gradually filled up after each dredging, partly by the deposit of silt from the river and partly by the washing in of material from the sides of the cut.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, $19,877.29 has been expended. Under contract with Mr. Rittenhouse Moore, of Mobile, Ala., approved October 26, 1892, 55,126 cubic yards of material was dredged from the channel through the bar at the mouth of the Apalachicola River between November 16, 1892, and April 10, 1893, at 33 cents per cubic yard. The dredged cut was about 5,600 feet long, from 70 to 120 feet in width, and 8 feet in depth.

It is anticipated that the cut through Bulkhead Shoal will be reasonably permanent. Experience has shown that the bar at the mouth of the Apalachicola River will require redredging at least once in two years unless the cut is made deeper and wider than has been hitherto possible with the funds available. It is possible that a deeper and wider cut may be more permanent.

The commerce of Apalachicola Bay consists mainly in the exportation of lumber, which is transported from the mainland to the anchorage grounds in lighters and rafts, towed by tugs drawing from 5 to 7 feet of water. When the depth in the channel across the bar is reduced below 7 feet much trouble is experienced in carrying on the business of the port.

Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1895 50, 000, 00 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and

harbor acts of 1866 and 1867 and of sundry civil act of March 3, 1893. (See Appendix P 1.)

2. Apalachicola River, the Cut-off, and Lower Chipola River, Florida. The examination and survey of the Apalachicola River, finished in 1873, showed that the river, throughout its length of 105 miles, had a channel not less than 6 feet deep. The channel was, however, much obstructed by the accumulation of logs and snags brought into it by the freshets in the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers and by the trees which had fallen from its own heavily timbered banks. At Moccasin Slough the river had been obstructed by piles driven by Confederate authorities during the war. Drift had accumulated against these piles, forming a dam across the river, which had then forced a narrow and very crooked channel through its banks into the river Styx. Navigation was difficult at the upper and lower elbows on account of the abrupt bends and narrow channel.