REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS.

The tables show that January, 1871, shipped the greatest number of dressed hogs, but combining the four articles of the hog product, hogs, mess-pork, lard, and bacon, and we find that January, 1872, shipped 204,450 pounds more than the corresponding period last year; while in oats, we have the astonishing figures of 2,269,800 pounds against 83,100 for the same time, an increase of 2,184,700 pounds. For that matter, the month of January, 1872, lacked only 184,070 pounds (about 9 cars) of having forwarded as many oats as during the entire year of 1871, and had there been the needed supply of cars would bave exceeded that of oats in said year.

This is encouraging, and offers greater reasons than ever why we should all unite in the efforts being made to extend our railroad facilities in the direction from whence these products come.

Besides the shipments, our grain-warehouses are full and will be overflowing when navigation opens. While this is true in grain, it is none the less an object of interest than that of mess-pork, bacon, lard, and lead that will then be on hand, showing further, that while we should increase our rail facilities, it is equally our duty to improve the navigation of Galena River. These two improvements (of rail and river) will so augment our commercial business as to compare favorably with towns of quadruple the population of ours. ably located as Galena to make a large commercial center, if our people will only imNo town west of Chicago and north of Saint Louis is so favorprove the facilities nature has lavishly laid before them.

In connection with the above report of shipments for the month of January, we have the report of city weighmaster, Thomas McIntire, showing that 13,570 dressed hogs were weighed on the city scales during the same month. This does not include large lots bought at other places and delivered direct to the packing-houses.

The general markets during the past week with a very few exceptions were quiet. In groceries the demand has been but light, and chiefly for small assortments. Our wholesale grocers have on hand full stocks, and are receiving daily additions, preparatory to the spring trade.

There were 13,570 dressed hogs weighed in Galena during the month of January. There have been a little over 26,000 weighed on the public scales here this season. This does not include the hogs slaughtered by J. M. Ryan, nor those packed here which were bought in other markets. The total number of hogs handled in Galena this season will not fall far short of 50,000.

I herewith present you with some details of statistics, taken from the United States Census of 1870, of the counties of Grant, Iowa, and La Fayette in Southern Wisconsin, and Jo Daviess County in Illinois, the surplus products of which find a market or shipment from the city of Galena.

This region is directly tributary to Galena.

34, 372 300,000

Zinc-ore

The surplus of these products find a market in the South, and, with the completion of the Galena and Southern Wisconsin Railroad, now in process of construction, (and thirty miles nearly completed,) following the fourth principal meridian to the watersheds of the Wisconsin River, and then running along the military ridge to the city of Madison, Wisconsin, you at once open up to the commerce of the Mississippi River a country unsurpassed in fertility, productions, and mineral wealth.

In the single article of zinc-ore, last year there was shipped over the Mineral Point Railroad to Warren, and thence over the Illinois Central Railroad to the La Salle Zinc Works, 15,000 tons. This zinc-ore is hauled on wagons at an expense of $4 a ton from the mines to the railroad, a distance of from eighteen to twenty-two miles. With our road completed running direct to these mines, if we could be assured of the navigation of Galena River, this article alone would furnish thousands of tons for transportation to the coal-fields of Missouri and Illinois to be smelted.

To be profitable it must seek a cheaper mode of transportation than by rail, and in return this vast region is to be supplied with coal when it can be furnished by cheap water-transportation.

There

The population of the city of Galena in the present limits is nine thousand. has been but little increase in population for several years, until within the last two years. Owing to local causes a more hopeful feeling has prevailed, and the business prospects of the city have greatly improved, while the business interest of the city has been greatly injured and its prosperity retarded by the uncertainty of navigation on said river. But with our railroad completed, penetrating Southern Wisconsin, and our river made navigable, we would be assured of our former prosperity.

It was not uncommon a few years ago to see from twelve to fifteen steamboats a day at our wharf; from various causes, particularly the filling up of our river from the washings and deposits occasioned by the cultivation of the lands along the banks, and the construction and leaving unprotected the railroad embankments, that to-day it is impossible for steamboats to reach the landing, where a few years ago there was an abundance of water to accommodate any boat that navigated the Upper Mississippi. This is no doubt produced in part from the cut-off leading to the Mississippi. As in ordinary water the current flowing from the Mississippi into Galena River produces a strong current below the cut-off, so as to generally keep that part in boating order, while above the cut-off there is little or no current up to and above the city, thus serving as a basin to collect deposits and fill up the river, which has been accumulating for years, but not regarded until it became a positive obstruction to navigation.

With the river cleared out and the railroad companies required to riprap at exposed points, I think all obstruction from deposits would be entirely removed, particularly so if the city authorities (as is being agitated) would allow a dam to be thrown across the river at Meeker street, above navigation, to create a water-power that could be so constructed as at certain periods, when the Mississippi River was at low stage, the water could be let off, and wash out the channel from all obstructions.

The dam would serve an additional purpose as a reservoir to collect the deposits before it could run in the river below and obstruct it.

In this connection, as you ask any practical suggestion, I think if the cut-off is not filled up and the river restricted to its original chaunel, that there should be thrown out from Harris's Slough a wing-dam to throw a much larger body of water from the Mississippi River into Galena River, the tendency of which would be to increase the depth of water above the cut-off. But our people are satisfied with any plan that may be adopted to remedy the evil.

Yours, respectfully,

M. Y. JOHNSON.

H 6.

RED RIVER OF THE NORTH, FROM MOOREHEAD, MINNESOTA, TO PEMBINA, DAKOTA.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,

Saint Paul, Minn., March 4, 1874. GENERAL: I have the honor to make the following report of the results of a survey of the Red River of the North, from Moorehead, Minn., to Frog Point, Dak., and of an examination from thence to Pembina, Dak. The part surveyed contains all the serious obstructions to navigation in that part of river ordered surveyed by act of Congress approved March 3, 1873, and the detailed survey of this part took all the short season after the subsidence of high water. The surveying party was under the charge of Assistant Engineer D. W. Wellman, who was assisted by Sub-Assistant C. F. Hollingsworth and Recorder Hart Vance.

I. The Red River of the North has its head at the junction of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail Rivers, on the western boundary of the State of Minnesota. Its general direction is almost due north, and within the territory of the United States the distance between its head and the northern boundary of the United States is 197 miles. The course of the river in the same limits is more than twice as long. It is a sluggish, tortuous stream, the current, except at the rapids or chutes, being hardly one mile per hour. It flows through a very flat prairie, between clay banks, varying from 20 to 60 feet high. This prairie rises

from the top of the river-banks very slowly, about 2.5 feet per mile, to the east and west, and falls towards the north about 0.7 foot per mile. At Moorehead the river-banks are 33 feet high, at Frog Point (the end of the survey) 614 feet, and at Pembina about 50 feet. The area within the territory of the United States drained by the Red River is about 32,000 square miles. The annual rain-fall is very small.

The following are the measured rain-falls for 1873, at the several posts about the Red River Valley:

Fort Abercrombie, 11.42 inches of rain, but snow-fall not measured. Average snowfall for 12 years, 4 inches per year.

Fort Pembina, 14.185 inches. Average for three years, 13.16 inches.

Fort Wadsworth, 29.45 inches. Average for 5 years, 18.95 inches.
Fort Totten-

Besides the Bois de Sioux and the Otter Tail Rivers, which form the head of the Red River, the principal tributaries within the United States from the west are the Wild Rice, Cheyenne, Elm, Goose, Turtle, Big Salt, Little Salt, and Pembina Rivers, and on the east the Buffalo, Wild Rice, Sand Hill, Red Lake, Snake Hill, and Two Rivers. At Moorehead the stream is, at low water, 100 feet wide, and at Frog Point, after flowing a distance of 122 miles, about 160 feet. The river from Moorehead to the head of Goose Rapids is 98.062 miles long, and falls 50.658 feet, or about foot per mile. The main rapids are 0.928 of a mile long, and the fall in that distance is 4.6 feet. From thence to the end of the survey, 21.031 miles, the fall is 16.569 feet, or 0.77 of a foot per mile.

Immediately adjoining the banks of the river is considerable timber; more on the east bank than on the west, owing to the destructive annual prairie fires sweeping along from the Dakota plains. The timber is oak, basswood, and poplar. The water is muddy from the washings of the clay banks, but pleasant to the taste, notwithstanding the Big and Little Salt and the Turtle Rivers are very brackish. The annual spring freshets are variable in duration and height. They are caused, notfrom an excess of rain-fall at the headwaters, but from ice-gorges formed at various points of the river, owing to the ice in the upper part of the river breaking up before that in the lower. At highest water the current is very small, hardly perceptible, but when the icegorges give way there is for a short time a current of great velocity, which often does great damage to the banks. The difference of level between high and low water marks at Pembina is 45 feet, at Moorehead about 36 feet.

The total fall of the river from Moorehead to Pembina is 116.3 feet, which would show that the average fall per mile of the river below Frog Point is very small, not exceeding three-tenths of a foot per mile.

The valley of the Red River is very sparsely settled. Along the immediate banks the principal settlements in the United States are, Breckinbridge, Minn.; Macauley ville, Minn., (opposite Fort Abercrombie;) Moorehead, Minn.; and Fargo, Dak., on the opposite bank of the river at the Northern Pacific Railroad crossing; Georgetown, Minn., about 15 miles below Moorehead by land; Frog Point, Dak., (the head of lowwater navigation;) Grand Forks, Dak., opposite the mouth of the Red Lake River, and Pembina, Dak., 23 miles south of the boundary. There are some few farms, but very few.

II. OBSTRUCTIONS TO NAVIGATION IN THE RIVER.

The obstructions to navigation are not very formidable, except at one place, Goose Rapids. Commencing at Moorehead and going down stream the obstructions are as follows, (see accompanying tracings:)

Position.

Obstructions between Moorehead and Goose Rapids along the banks and in the channel of the Red River of the North.

Remarks.

Nine bunches of loose brush caught on bottom. Dredging.

Bowlders.

At Goose Rapids the river falls 4.6 feet in 4,900 feet, (the length of the main rapids.) The channel is filled with bowlders, which render the navigation impossible at low water. Last season the parties owning the steamboats navigating the river constructed some wing-dams, so as to deepen the water over the worst places in the rapids. The result was plenty of water, but running at such a velocity as to render necessary the use of warping hawsers to pass steamboats from the foot to the head of the rapids. Below Goose Rapids the obstructions are as follows:

Obstructions between Goose Rapids and Frog Point, Red River of the North.

III. The following plans and estimates are submitted for removing or overcoming the above-mentioned obstructions to navigation:

Above Goose Rapids the snags should be removed, the overhanging trees cut down, and the mud-lumps dredged out, all of which would cost $4,428.

To overcome the fall at Goose Rapids, I would recommend a lock and dam, the lock to be placed in the second neck of land, (see tracing on large scale,) and the dam in the third reach below the foot of the rapids; the lock to be 50 by 150 feet in plan, and a lift of 6 feet; the floor and gates of the lock to be of timber and the walls of concrete masonry.

Owing to the remoteness of the locality and the consequent cost of labor and materials, the lock would cost not less than $175,000, and the dam not less than $10,000.

Between the site of the proposed lock and Frog Point, the obstructions could be removed by dredging the bars and removing the bowlders. The cost of dredging would be $32,380.20, and of removing the bowlders, $500. I do not make any estimate for any work below Frog Point, as the examination was not detailed enough, but there are no serious obstructions. I would recommend that the survey be continued to the northern boundary of the United States.

Last season there were three steamboats plying on the Red River between Moorehead and Fort Garry, Manitoba, and two more are to be placed on the route next summer. Besides these steamers there are many flat-boats, which carry large amounts of freight.

The business on the river is principally carrying supplies for the settlements in Manitoba and bringing back furs. The amount of freight carried down-stream last summer was 16,000 tons, and the amount upstream hardly exceeded 300 tons. As the country is settled the traffic on the river will increase. A railroad is projected and located on the east of the river. It is generally between ten and twenty miles away from the river, and is finished to the crossing of the Red Lake River. It is supposed it will be finished to Pembina next season. This will stimulate immigration, and as farm-products can be transported more cheaply by river than by rail, a considerable increase of traffic on the river may be looked for during the next few years.

V. No detailed estimate of the cost of the lock and dam are submitted, as before such estimates can be furnished there must be borings made and other details determined, which can be done after Congress determines on the improvement of the river. I would, therefore, recommend a first appropriation of $40,000 to be used in removing snags, bowlders, and overhanging trees, and to make the detailed examinations of the sites of the proposed lock and dam. Those interested in the navigation of the Red River would much prefer, if only a part of the desired improvements can be made during the coming season, that the obstructions above and below the rapids should be removed first, as they can afford to build the temporary wing dams at the rapids, but cannot afford to remove the bars and rocks above and below.

1 forward by express to-day, to your address, seven sheets of tracings, showing the river as far as surveyed, and one on a larger scale of the vicinity of Goose Rapids.

Hoping that this report may meet with your approval, I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Brig. Gen. A. A. HUMPHREYS,

Chief of Engineers, U. S. A.

H 7.

F. U. FARQUHAR,

Major United States Engineers.

SURVEY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,

Saint Paul, December 22, 1873.

GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of Assistant Engineer J. D. Skinner, who made the examination, under my direc