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MARINE REVIEW. 7 objections and warnings, just as was the case with the works at the mouth of the Mississippi, or the Chicago Drainage Canal; but who can recall a case wherein the objections and warnings have not proved absurd? The steamboat, the locomotive and the steamship have all survived in spite of the negations of their birth-time. The utility of executing a project for regulating and controlling the levels of lakes may be measured in several ways, according to the point of view. Those commercially inclined will inquire as to the revenue to be derived from the investment, either directly or indirectly, or as to the effect on freight rates. The ship owner will inquire as to how many tons of freight he can carry in one hull. The engineer will inquire into the physical effect of the work, not only with reference to what he creates, but as to what he preserves. The regulation will secure an increase of low water navigable depths in the several lakes affected to the amount of several feet, besides render- ing the depths at all times more nearly uniform, and thereby enabling ships at all times to carry nearly full cargoes. This constitutes the utility with reference to whatis created. The utility with reference to what is preserved may be far more important. It is a fact that the hydraulic conditions in the basin of the upper lakes, especially, are and have been undergoing a change, the effect of which is not determined and may never be. The forests are giving away to farms. The proportion of rainfall absorbed by vegetation is perhaps widely different from what it was formerly, and just to the extent that the farm has dis- placed the forest, to just such extent has there been an increase in the quantity of water used. Again, the disappearance of the forest may be ac- companied by change of rainfall, or in the proportion of rainfall that finds its way to the lakes rather than to the skies by evaporation. Again, con- ditions such as exist at the Sault Ste. Marie are having a prejudicial effect on Lake Superior. In fact, the tendency of works now being executed in ihe St. Clair flats, Detroit and Niagara rivers and at Chicago, and the works Ship Yard Matters. Although there is still considerable figuring going on for new steel vessels, additional contracts are slow in materializing, as the steel yards, excepting in two cases, are unable to insure delivery until July or August of next year. Thecontract for the big car ferry for the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway, which is quite certain to cost more than $300,000, has not as yet been awarded, but a settlement of the matter is expected in a few days. The Chicago Ship Building Co. as well as F. W. Wheeler & Co., the Detroit Dry Dock Co., and the Globe Iron Works Co., is understood to be making a strong effort to secure the job. James McBrier of Erie and the Detroit owners of the steamer Bielman are still figuring with the different builders for steel tow barges, but as far as can be learned their negotiations are as far from a settlement now as they were several weeks ago. Specifications for three steel propellers and ten tow barges of the kind that have for some time past been in service between Cleveland and New York via the Erie canal, have been prepared by the Cleveland Steel Canal Boat Co., and ship builders will be asked, this week, to bid on the vessels. The propellers will have considerable more power than the first steam vessel built for this service. Engines for the steel package freight-steamer that is being built by the Union Dry Dock Co., Buffalo, on ship yard account, will be con- structed by H. G. Trout and will have cylinders of 23, 38% and 64 inches diameter by 42 inches stroke. The boilers, of which there will be four, will be 11% inches diameter and 13 feet long, and will be built to with- stand 175 pounds steam pressure. O. W. Shipman, a Detroit coal dealer who conducts a very large busi- ness throughout Michigan and the northwest, has revived the scheme of operating car ferries between Cleveland and Port Stanley, Ont., to con- nect at the latter point with the London & Port Stanley Railway, which JAPANESE PICTURE OF A NAVAL ENGAGEMENT DURING THE JAPANESE-CHINESE WAR. which it is hoped will result from the effects of this convention, is and will be to lower the levels of the lakes. It may be fairly assumed that the regu- lation and control of the levels will have great utility in preserving as well as in creating depths of water suited for navigation. Consider how a depth of twenty-six feet in and through the lakes is to be secured. Unless there be control of the levels, such depth must be de- vised on the basis of lower levels than any which have hitherto existed. Unless there be control, the difficulty of creating sufficiently deep har- bors will be more than is necessary. Such control will render the state of the lakes positive and beyond a doubt; whereas, without it, the conditions will be tentative and the result to follow from any system of works will bein a degree uncertain. If the cost of such control does not exceed $5,000,000, the expense may be rated to be small compared with the benefits to follow. In conclusion, and by way of summary, it may be said that control is practicable from all points of view, the greatest difficulty being found in theiinternational, and the least difficulty in the engineering questions in- volyed. It is useful, not only from considerations of finance and conven- ience, but also because it will preserve existing conditions in spite of the many causes that do and will tend to destroy them. would furnish important connections and open up quite a large territory for Ohio and Pennsylvania coal that is now burthened with heavy rail freights, on account of the long haul around Lake Erie. Mr. Shipman's plan is tointerest English capitalin the scheme. He talks of securing for the service car ferries that would cost $300,000 or more each. His knowledge of the business and his ability to command capital for any practical enterprise attaches importance to the project. The wooden steamer to be built by the Jenks Ship Building Co. of Port Huron will be 254 feet over all, 42 feet beam and 14 feet depth of hold. Engines will be of the compound type with cylinders of 25 and 50 inches diameter and a stroke of 40 inches, and the boiler will be 13 by 12 feet, allowed 125 pounds steam pressure. The vessel will carry about 2,000 tons from Lake Superior and will be worth about $80,000. About Nov. 30 a 10-inch steam fog whistle, sounding two blasts of three seconds and one of six seconds separated by two silent intervals of twelve seconds and one of twenty-four seconds duration, will be estab- lished at Manitowoc pierhead light station, Lake Michigan, | at Bes MASTERS OF LAKE VESSELS CAN NOT WELL AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT THE NEW CHARTS. EXAMINE THEM AT THE OFFICE OF THE REVIEW,