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8 MARINE REVIEW. CHICAGO LAKE INTERESTS. WESTERN OFFICE, MARINE REVIEW, ; t No. 13 Western Union Building, CHICAGO, II1., Dec. 22. J. Stanley Morton of the Graham & Morton Transportation Company, running between Chicago and St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, has retired from the firm. Mr. Morton has been with the company over twenty years and has seen the business grow from a small venture to a fine line of steamers,carrying immense quantities of freight each year and a large number of passengers. Mr. Morton has made many friends among marine men here, who wish him all success in his new business. It is not likely that the name of the company will be changed. } Now comes out a novel plan for disposing of Hyde Park reef. The Chi- cago Yacht Club, which wants to build a club house on the Jake front, now pro- poses to drive piles all around the reef, fillin with the city refuse and make an island whereon to build a fort and park, pavilions and cafes, run ferries to this charming spot and create a small Garden of Eden for the people of Chi- cago, when hot days come again. The plan will be passed upon soon, it is said, but it is not known how it will be received. After a long spell of distant ramblings and other storm signals the wrath of the Society for the Prevention of Smoke has at last visited the penalty on some of the erring tugmen in this city who allowed their boats to make the air musky. One tug Jine is said to have paid $650 in fines. Commander John J. Brice has succeeded Commander Nicol Ludlow, in charge of the Ninth lighthouse district. Buffalo Harbor Improvements. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. Burrato, N. Y., Dec. 22.--Every week makes it plainer that the cry of full elevators did this port much harm. It probably cost us 20,000,000 bushels of grain and did nobody else any good for Chicago and Duluth are both uncomfortable with their holdings. Already the hard wheat has run down below the amount at this time last year. There is a project for a million- bushel elevator to be built across from the foot of Washington street, which will be announced very soon. ~-Ihere seems to be need of it. There are whispers of a vast scheme for developing the water front in a new direction to make ready for the 20-foot channel, but it is not yet far enough advanced for names and dates. The new Philadelphia & Reading trestle scheme is out and comes by authority. It is to be a practical doubling of that company's facilities here, for the new canal to be dug at the Tifft Farm with dock and trestle to be built on it will bridge over many days when coal would otherwise be short. Thisdock alone will ship 10,000 tons a day and it is only one of three. Strange to say it is to be built under the supervision of the men who are to handle it. The Reading trestle at Georgia street was built by expert engineers and when it was done the coal wouldn't flow in the pock- ets, and so many defects were discovered that it had to be overhauled at once. What lake navigation means the week before Christmas can be understood only by the masters of such boats as the Aurora, Wallalula and Missoula, that came in Sunday and Monday with corn from Chicago. All the consola- tion they got on their stories of blizzards and snow squalls was a side remark that all the other captains had got their boats laid up and they were at work for nothing. The late fleet will all winter here. The Wallula will unload at once, but the others will hold their grain. This makes fourteen floating car- goes here with considerably over a million bushels on board. The prospect of immense iron works to be built by the Gattling gun com- pany at Idlewood, a short distance up the lake shore, is ample proof of the need of an outer harbor much larger than the government is willing to give this port. After it has wasted a mint of money building a pocket harbor it will probably grant us one to correspond with our needs. There is talk of building elevators at Tonawanda, and a citizen of that town calls on certain capitalists to erect one on their property. The uncertain condition of the river channel prevents any such route being taken at present, but it is probable that the government engineer will sometime solve the intri- cacies of the river. He is now engaged in declaring that the channel is de- fined by the range lights, but every tugman says he is wrong. The Apostle Islands. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. BAYFIELD, Wis., Dec. 22.--The harbor between here and the nearest of the Apostle islands was coated with a thin sheet of ice yesterday, the first of the season. This harbor is usually open until after New Years day and the business that can be carried on between Bayfield and the islands is not inter- rupted. Wereother ports equally fortunate the entire marine business of Lake Superior could be continued a month longer than it now is. With the close of navigation the business of the Apostle islands takes on a different phase. These islands are twenty-two in number and stretch ir- regularly northward along the Wisconsin shore. They rise abruptly from the shore and are composed entirely of the red sandstone which of late years has become an article of commerce for building purposes. For many years it has been a problem to their owners to what use they could be put. Their isolation from railroad communication has been their drawback. Since the establish- yer, they have come into greater promi- nence. With the growth of the northwest it is predicted that they will be used as transfer yards for cattle in transit from west to east by rail and water. Should this plan ever be realized it is likely that communication with the mainland will be afforded by means of railroad ferries. : These islands are very fertile, being especially productive of vegetables, and many regard it as certain that they will supply the tables of the northwest twenty years from now. This season they will be scenes of much greater act- ivity than usual. The new process adopted by the Prentice quarries of thaw- ing the stone by steam will be introduced and the quarry owners expect to have a large amount of stone ready for shipment in the spring. Considerable pine will also be cut this winter. Very Low Figures on the Big Dredging Project. Special Correspondence to the MARINE KEVIEW. Derrort, Mich., Dec. 22.--It is probable that everybody interested in the bids for dredging the 20-foot channel throughout the lakes was surprised by the very low aggregate cost of the work. Congress has provided, through the con- tinuous contract system an.appropriation of $3,400,000 for this work. Of this amount about 10 per cent. will be reserved for engineering expenses, which would leave a little more than $3,000,000 to be expended for the removal of 5,819,366 cubic yards of material, the amount estimated by Gen. Poe for the entire project. According to the bids received, the contractors agree, how- ever, to do the work for $1,304,434. This total, which is less than half the estimate, will certainly leave a large margin for all contingencies. The low bids brought out by competition prove that the lakes have the greatest dredg- ing plants in this country. The following table shows the lowest bids on the different sections, and the amounts to be paid contractors according to the es- timates of material to be removed : ment of so many stone quarries, howe Ee Amount to be ES Ones a Lowest price| paid lowest ; Sections. ee ed| bid per | bidders on Lowest Bidders. manic yards. cubic yard. Present esti- Secs 90,000 | $0.44 $ 39,600 |R. J. Cram, Detroit. SEOs Boooctroos 380,000 .25 9-10 98,420 -- |C. Bi Avenel & Co., Ludington, ie ets ich. See. 3........ 90,366 2.43 219,589 |John Hickler, Buffalo. Sec. 4......... 67,000 "edd 14,740 J ohn ee ene ' - .J.Cr m, Detroit. : Sears. 256,000 58 148,480 | | Cioran' "& 'Lee, Hssexvitte, 7 ich. . Sec. 6......... 950,000 16% 156,750 James Rooney, Toledo. Sec, 7.2.00: 2,900,000 14% 431,375 Breyman Bros., Toledo. DOCworeecre 1,086,000 18 195,480 L. P. & J. A. Smith, Cleveland. Total .... 5,819,266 $1,304,484 In last week's issue of the Revirw a table was printed showing all bids: on five sections of the work. Bids on the other three sections were as follows: om Qo o 1 QD Ow ad Ae os: oe ae \ aes |e paar paps Pa ~ = ou ry o es mHS '© cs Z BS bb eee ~ a 2O.8 BIDDERS. _ Bog |= oe tee pe se) bee Be eae mee S 3 On aot ea] * .9 o | oo goo aS o's 2. paces SoeE | Sine | 255 SM CO | SMNSk | SES o o DM WM RQ Cents Cents icon Cranasel) ChrOliesses en crieowarces, cece uae *44 29 9-10 |*$ 58 Diabarsemouliiva nese, one mee teeee es 47 21 ale LP. & J. A. Smith, Cleveland:.....:4-.-.:..< 47 32 59 McCollum & Lee, Essexville, Mich............ RD Ds Sci: ss oan eee A O8 AJC) ators) & Gite) selkev re 2) SHOU REM OV, Soeem ane concen cna addunabo aon 80 #20. oe eee Carkin, Stickney & Cram,E. Saginaw, Mich. 87 43 1 30 C.K. Mitchell, & €o., Ludington, Mich. ...2.\:2:-<2-..0eoe. Ov: sae eee Christopher H. Starke, Milwaukee, Wis.....|..........0..0 42 1 20 luther Allens Wetronte, ecsrcs. cs cee nese neers one AO} El ee eecaeneee Sadler & Avlens=1) ctnaity csc.es oe cokes ea eee oisvaedl ie aoe eee 59 9-10 Wie We ein estore taitta los ete esos ae penences [eve ron sen eare | sateen emcee 2a lee, * Lowest bidder. Wheat and Corn in Store at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the Chicago board of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store at the principle points of accumulation on the lakes on Dec. 17, 1892: Wheat, bu. Com, bur Ciicago: ate eee II, 111,000 4,568,000 Duluth Se oe 12)184;,000-= 2 . ioe Milwaukee oo, Sep ete 2,208,000 20,000 Detroit. aa eenncect ee 1,482,000 49,000 Toledo...... Pee eae aC 3,579,000 275,000 Biwtlalorecten career. er te 4,844,000 271,000 'Rotaleyc teas 35,408,000 5,183,000