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1899.] MARINE REVIEW. 21 FROM A BUFFALO POINT OF VIEW. NO GREAT INTEREST IN THE NIAGARA DAM SOHEME, BUT..A PROPOSITION TO VOTE A MONUMENT TO W.J.CONNERS FOR THE STIMULUS THAT WILL BE GIVEN TO ERIE OANAL IMPROVEMENT ON ACOOUNT OF HIS OANADIAN PROJEOT. Buffalo, Dec. 27.--If there is anyone qualified to settle the problem ol the Niagara dam, more especially as to its after effects on the shore in seasons ot high water, Buffalo is one of the points that would be more than glad to have him stand up and speak. Since the introduction of the Cor- liss bill in congress the subject has taken a new interest and there are all sorts of "views" expressed on the matter, most of them larg ly conjec- tural and all manifesting a condition of uncomfortable doubt, if not suspi- cion of the part of the dock public. There is so much "disinterested" selfishness in such matters that our people very well know that the man who introduced the bill has, ten to one, never taken up the effects of such a dam on the water front effected. Chicago, according to its enterprising mayor, is going to ask the government to dig it a ship canal to the Miss- issippi and knock out the east still more than it has already done by cheap through freights, and it would not think of giving up a plan promising profit to the city for any little consideration l.:ke the welfare of the country at large. Well, it is safe to say at the start, as all marine men who are posted do say, that the Corliss bill does not stand a ghost of a chance of passing, at least in its present condition. One man says that it has no provisions worth considering beyond the perpetuation of the deep water- por. So the committee will say to the state that if the Erie canal can be put on a footing like other carrying routes the commerce of New York and the Buffalo-New York route are safe and New York has.already an- ticipated the step by declaring for a canal that can move wheat from Butfalo to New York for a cent a bushel. Then let New York city give the canal suitable terminals and the double menace from the roads and Canada 1s beaten off once more, all of which is in the interest of cheap handling and carrying. The world moves, but it so generally happens that the business world does not move till it is obliged to that we will welcome anything Canada can do it that is necessary to set us in motion on this side of the line. If it has the desired effect we will vote a statue to Mr. 'Conners. JOHN CHAMBERLIN. MORE SUCCESSFUL TRIALS OF MILLER CONVEYOR. In a fresh easterly breeze and quite a heavy swell from the same quar- ter, the final trial of coaling ship at sea twenty miles off Sandy Hook by means of the Miller conveyor, made by the Lidgerwood Mnfg. Co. oi New York, was successfully accomplished on Friday last by the collier Marcellus, while being towed by the battleship Massachusetts. Instead o/ operating slowly, as anticipated, in a seaway, the conveyor transferred more coal in a given time and at 420 feet distance, against the previous 300 feet, than in smooth water. Excluding stoppages for swinging the ships into position, eighty trips were made in eighty minutes, 160 bags of coal. each weighing 420 pounds, being transferred from ship to ship in that time, the collier pitching and rolling considerably, and the warship's for- ORE PIT, BRIDGES AND ORE TRANSFER CARS AT THE OHIO WORKS OF THE NATIONAL STEEL CO. ways commission, which it does yery neatly, and another notes that the canal that is to make navigation possible on the lower side of the dam is not provided for. The other day there came up a storm that in a short time raised the water 7 feet in Buffalo harbor and it went down more suddenly than it rose. Aithough there are those who explain that the dam could be built 30 that it would not contribute to such sudden fluctuations, yet when they did occur after it was built there would be any amount of claims for dam- ages on that score. Vessel men say that the direction of the. mouth of Buffalo creek and its position just above the dam are exactly suited to the driving of great currents up the creek whenever a southwest storm comes up, no matter whether the normal condition of the lake is high or not. We shall see, maybe, but not yet. As to the Conners venture in Montreal and its prospective success in some form there are not a few people who are secretly glad of it. Buffalo has something to say to the state now by way of argument in favor of the speedy improvement of the Erie canal. As matters stood the Can- adian. canals were always getting into better form just after they were again out of date, and it is even now hard to see how much can be done over that route even with the St. Lawrence canals down to 14 feet, but the pos- sibility 1s greater of course.. At aaa rate New York city is pretty thoroughly scared. The gov- ernor's canal committee met there last week and the members who came back from there say that it was besought on all sides for some assurance that the Si. Lawrence route would not still further reduce the city's wan- ing commerce. The reply to all this uneasy casting about was that New York's lighterage and other terminal charges were to blame for most of » he decline, but New York sees no way of attacking these and says so. The vasieGeda are in full possession and' they will look after their own advantage, whether that takes the business to New York or some other ward deck being continually wet by the sea, into which she plunged while steaming between 4 and 5 knots an hour. Capt. C. J. Train, commanding the Massachusetts, and his officers ex- pressed great satis action at the result of the trials and said that to them it proves the system is capable of supplying coal at sea in any weather when it is fit to "coal ship" at all. : The trial board was composed of Commander A. B. Lillie, Lieut. John B. Bernadau and Lieut. W. R. Rush, all of the United States navy, Chief Boatswain William Anderson, U. S. N., was in charge of the men on the Marcellus and Boatswain Stoakley of those on the Massachusetts. A series of experiments are being conducted at Havre with an in- vention by Baron d'Alessandro of floating nets for use in moderating the force of waves during storms. It is said that the invention is superior to oil in the effects produced. The nets have been vastly improved since the first experiments were made some seven or eight years ago, and it is now claimed that well-buoyed and ballasted nets will withstand the most powerful currents and violent tempests and will prove of value not only in storms but also for protection at entrances to ports, difficult passages in the neighborhood of lighthouses and the defense of exposed fishing stations against heavy seas. Secretary of the Navy Long will in the near future send to the. naval committees of congress a bill providing for the construction of two 3,000-ton vessels for use in training seamen, Attention will be called to the obsolete type of ships now employed in the training service. The Hartford is the only modern vessel. The Alliance will go out of com- mission permanently after another cruise, and neither the Essex nor the Lancaster will be good for more than a few years more service. About $600,000 will be required for the construction of the proposed new ships,