(f) Transporting stone. All the stone quarried during the year, together with some quarried previous years, has been transported to the site of the locks, and piled in convenient places, ready for use. Most of the stone for cutting is piled in the stoneyard at the (114.0) level, and the rest in the yard near the stone-shed. Of the store intended for backing, paying, and rubble work, a part is piled on the protecting em bankment on the right of the canal; and a part, within reach of fixed derricks, near the lower entrance to the canal. Besides the above, 39 cubic yards of stone for cutting were hauled to the stone-shed from the quarry, situated about one mile above the works. It is hoped that the pile of stone on the protection embankment will, by its great weight, so consolidate the embankment as to stop, or at least greatly lessen, the leakage through it. The length of tramway laid for transportation of stone was 1,764 feet, all of which has since been taken up, to preserve it from being carried away by high water. Cost of transporting stone per cubic yard moved... (g) Stone-cutting : Face stone for side wall of canal.. $1.03 41.8 0.94 $0.084 3.72 .123 5.69 square feet.. .cubic yard.. Average number of square feet cut daily, per man 10.51 (h) Clearing away and piling stone at lower entrance to corral.-This work consisted in removing two large piles of rock that had been dumped at the lower entrance to the canal before the present plan of improvement was adopted and while the work was in the hands of contractors; in cleaning the shore below the bulkhead of bowlders and clumps of bed-rock, and in piling the stone at convenient places ready for use. Amount of stone thus moved and piled, about .....cubic yards.. 3,850 Cost per cubic yard thus moved and piled, about.......... $1.41 (i) Side wall of right at lower entrance.-Excavation work for this wall was commenced in November, and carried on till the middle of December, when it had to be abandoned on account of severe weather and snow-storms. Great drifts of snow accumulated over the site of the work; and it was so late before these disappeared that it was thought unadvisable to continue the work this season. The cost of this work is included in the item "Excavation" in the detailed statement of expenditures below; and the amount excavated (1,214 cubic yards) is included above under the item "Excavation of lock-pit." (i) Buildings.-A new cement storage-house of 2,000 barrels capacity, situated a little east of the stone shed, has been built and completed, all but the flooring, and battening. Cost to date, $828.05. A neat little railroad station-house, presented by the merchants of Portland, Oreg., to the employés of the locks, in recognition of their' services during the great storm of last winter, in carrying provisions to snow-bound trains, and in helping to open the blockade, has been erected, by permission, on Government land. The building is now used as a waiting-room, post-office, and express office, and is considered as belonging to the works. The upper story has been fitted up at Government expense, as quarters for the attending physician. Cost to the Government, $86.96. The carpenter shop has been moved from its old position in the hollow to a more convenient location, on top of the bank, at railroad grade. This had to be done to permit the grading of the old site up to the (130) level. Cost of moving shop, $117.26. Repairs of a more or less extensive character have been made, as needed, to the various buildings occupied as quarters, and to the office, mess and lodging houses, powder-houses, hospital, and commissary building, stone shed, and blacksmith shop. The total cost of expenditures below, under its proper heading. (k) Plant. The plant generally, including that on the canal and on the river, has been kept in good order. A machinist was employed during the busy season to look after and keep in repair the hoisting-engines, steam-drills, and other machinery. Some new plant has been manufactured, including several new stationary derricks and a number of tools for use in the blacksmith shop. The large centrifugal pump, for pumping out the canal-pit, has been repaired and put in good working order. The slipping of the wire rope on the drive-wheels, which has heretofore always interfered with the proper running of the pump, has been entirely prevented by using ordinary rubber hose, split in half, as packing. Extensive repairs were made early in the season to the tow-boat, launch, drillscow, and wood-scow, to fit them for use on river-improvement work. The cost of these repairs is given in the statement of expenditures below. (1) Protection of property.-During the floods of summer most of the works are covered with water, so that all plant and material liable to damage have to be moved each year to high ground. All has again to be moved into position, on the subsidence of the water, before work can be resumed. This adds very much to the cost of the work. A further expense has been incurred this year in securely housing hoisting-engines, derrick booms and masts, and other material liable to damage on long exposure to the weather. This has been rendered necessary by the failure of Congress to appropriate funds for continning the work. Parts of machinery necessarily exposed, iron work, &c., liable to damage, have been painted, and care has been taken generally to protect all plant and material as much as possible from deterioration during the enforced suspension of the work. (m) Miscellaneous.—For the convenience and safety of boats coming to the locks at different stages of the river, a floating landing-stage, consisting of a raft of large timbers, with mooring and fender posts, all securely framed together, has been constructed and moored at the foot of the canal. Cost, $349.76. Operations, both on the canal and river, were necessarily suspended for a considerable time during and after the great storm of last winter. This storm, which commenced about the middle of December, lasted for three weeks, and was of unusual severity. Snow fell at this place to a depth of 8 feet on the level; and in places was blown into drifts of immense depth, which completely buried parts of the work, and for a long time prevented the resumption of work. The river was closed by ice, and the railroads were, for a long time, completely blockaded. Considerable difficulty was experienced in getting provisions for the men and for blockaded passengers detained here. Many of our hands fortunately found employment, at good wages, in shoveling snow for the railroad company. The rainfall, height of water, &c., for each month of the year, are given in the following table: The following statement shows the average number of men per day employed during each month of the year: River improvement has extended this year from the main falls opposite the Locks to the foot of Old Garrison Rapids, as shown on the accompanying map; and has consisted of the drilling and blasting of bowlders and masses of conglomerate and bed rock, along either shore; and in blasting, either by submerged charges, or after drilling, of rocks and clmps of reefs in the channel-way of the river itself. The methods and appliances used were, practically, the same as those described in previous reports, only that a greater familiarity with the work permitted a more advantageous arrangement of details and a more vigorous prosecution of the work. The tow-boat and drill-scow, after undergoing extensive repairs in Portland, reported here for duty in the latter part of August. The small steam-launch was brought down over the falls, during high water in July, at considerable risk, for serv ice on river-improvement work. The tow-boat was employed in blasting on Big Eddy Reef, and in transportation work, and in attendance on the Chief of Engineers and party, until October 31, when she was sent to the month of the Willamette, for work there and on the Lower Columbia. The accompanying map shows the portions of Big Eddy Reef attacked. It consisted of a broad flat shelf of bed-rock, over which water from 8 to 12 feet deep was running at a rate of about 15 miles an hour at the time the blasting was done. The plan adopted for removing the reef was simply to mash it down by firing large charges of dynamite resting directly on top of the rock. The tow-boat was used in lowering the charges, which consisted usually of 400 pounds of 72 per cent, dynamite. Lines leading from the tow-boat to a securely-anchored scow in the eddy above, and to the shore, enabled her to place herself at any desired point for sounding and lowering the charges. The charges, besides being heavily weighted, had to be held in position by lead lines from the scow above, to keep them from being swept away by the swift current. The submerged charges were fired from the scow above by sending down along one of the lines a properly-arranged exploder, with lighted fuse attached. A very considerable improvement to the rapid was at once effected by the work. The drill-scow was employed during the whole low-water season in steam drilling at various points along the river; and at the close of the season was sent to Portland along with the steam-launch for safe-keeping. The launch did excellent service during the whole year as tender to the drill-scow and in waiting on the force of gangdrillers on shore. The results of the season's operations are shown in detail in the following table and the accompanying map, where are given the location of the reefs and bowlders attacked, and the amounts broken up and removed in each case, as well as the cost of the improvement and of the different kinds of work. |