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that a naval station ought to be established on the coast of Alaska and that the most suitable spot 1s Valdez, which has a harbor amply large enough to accommodate a fleet, and an entrance about one mile wide, that can be fortified so as to render it impregnable. affairs believe At certain seasons Valdez is a port of entry for an extensive mining region, and a railroad, with connections with all the principal points, will have its terminus there. 'Valdez is'\ "about 1,300" miles to the north of Seattle, Wash. NEW MARINE - SUPERINTEND- ENT. W. H. Allison, who for more than a year past has been the assistant of Rresident=) Ceshond snot thes eacitic Coast Steamship _Co., thas been ap- pointed marine superintendent in suc- cession to Capt. John H. Rinder, who resigned his position recently on ac- count of the dissatisfaction expressed with this performance of its duties. Mr. Allison was in a ship building yard as a young man and then be- came a marine engineer. He has been in the: service of the Pacific Steamship Co., for many years, being at one time assistant superintending engineer of the corporation. He en- tered upon the performance of his new duties in Jan. 1, his headquarters being at San Francisco. No new as- sstant to the president of the Pacific Coast Steamship Co., thas been ap- pointed, the work being divided be- tween G. W. Morton, who has also been assistant to the president and Capt. Patterson, assistant port super- intendent. CHINESE JUNK WHANG-HO. The ancient Chinese junk Whang- Ho, which is claimed to be about 100 years old, is very soon to undertake a very long and perilous voyage. She iis Wo Sail irom Sant Wicamelsca sei New Orleans going via the Straits. of Magellan. Capt. M. A. Graham, formerly an officer on the steamship Roanoke, is to command the old junk on her long voyage. The crew will be composed of eight white men. The first stop out from San. Fran- cisco for water and supplies will be made at Mazatlan. The Whang-Ho was brought over from China over a year ago, merely as a money making scheme. , The vessel has been on ex- hibition as a specimen 'of old Chinese marine anchitecture, at all of the lead- inf bachic coast "pOtts. a. oe originally a war vessel used by the Chinese government against the Chin- ese pirates. Recently the Whang-Ho Was Coast ° TAE Marine REVIEW was purchased by an American and brought over flying the 'stars and stripes. She caused no little trouble to the customs department before she could be entened at an American port. Before that could be done, a special ruling had to be made. As the old Whang-Ho made the voyage safely from China to San Francisco, it is confidently believed that will round the Horn and reach New Orleans. Her hull is built of teak wood fastened with bronze bolts; and it is claimed that the wood is still perfectly sound notwith- standing the vessel's great age. she NAVAL RECOMMENDATIONS. R. C; Hollyday, chief. of the Bu- reau of Yards and Docks, navy de- partment, in his annual report has made several recommendations for the improvement of the service, including a recommendation for an appropriation for a new dock at the Puget Sound navy yard, also for a continuance of the ap- propriation for the dock at Guantanamo, Cuba, and for enlarging the entrance to the dock at Norfolk navy yard. The establishment of a dock at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where land has al- ready been acquired, is also recom- mended. This tharbur is near Hono- lulu and the dock will cost $2,000,000. An estimate of $500,000 to begin this work is submitted and another $555,500 for the naval station at Olangapo, Philippine Islands, is also submitted. The estimates for the various yards include the following: Boston, $435,- 800; naval station at Cavite, $59,700; navy yard, Charleston, S. C., $402,- 500; naval station, Guantanamo, $425,- OVO, of which $400,000 is to begin a drydock; League Island, $993,255; Mare Island, $786,800; New Orleans naval station, $75,000; Norfolk, $1,950,- 500; Pensacola, $157,800; Portsmouth, $871,350; Puget Sound, $1,491,500, $100,000 of which is to begin the con- struction of a drydock, and Wash- ington, $985,047; also an appropriation of $360,000 for two 'storehouses for material to be held in reserve in case of special emergency, one on the Atlantic coast and another at Olon- gapo. An announcement of interest to the shipping contingent on the Pacific coast is to the effect that the government has resumed its hydrographic explorations in those waters, which were abandoned in 1887 to permit of surveying Alaskan waters. More recently the Philippine islands have received the greater share of attention. ube OUR FIVE INLAND SEAS.* BY HARVEY D. GOULDER, "You have given me a topic, fit sub+ ject for a volume, embracing as it does the grandest achievement of industrial help to a nation and to the world which - history presents; with incentives to con- servative optimism, concrete promise of sustained progress and solid basis of hope. "No man may contemplate the use of the great lakes, the five inland seas, and' the far-reaching affect, without being inspired with greater courage for the fu- ture of his own environment. On either coast or in Canada or at the gulf or anywhere between. "Geographically speaking, these five great inland seas, with their river con- nections and outlet, constitute the St. Lawrence system. With the exception of Lake Michigan they mark or line the, boundary between us and our friendly and vigorous neighbor for some 1,800 miles and it is the lesson of this water- way that Canada upon lines and rules off trade similar to our own is going for-! ward rapidly and confidently in a splen- did development, I may say hand} in hand. "In 1836 the state of Ohio and the ter- ritory of Michigan nearly came to blows about the dividing line between them and in proposed compromise Michigan re- jected the upper peninsula as worthless, but she afterwards accepted it. In 1840 when on. application of Michigan a bill was before congress for a land grant to aid the building of a lock to overcome the 19-ft. drop in water level at Sault Ste. Marie, Henry Clay said in a speech) which defeated the particular bill, 'it is a work quite beyond the remotest set4 tlement of the United States, if not i the moon.' "Tt was in 1871, when application was made for a land grant to aid a railroad from the twin cities at the head of the Mississippi to the head of Lake Su- perior that Proctor Knott ridiculed Du- luth, the future great, the Zenith City of the unsalted seas. "Last week a steel freight steamer embracing every modern convenience for economic transportation brought down from Duluth through the Sault canal and delivered at Buffalo the largest cargo of wheat ever carried by any ship in the world, 422,000 bushels; enough to make 84,000 barrels of flour, and at 14 bushels to the acre, representing the product of 30,000 acres, approxi- mately 50 square miles; and I have it from official sources that we may take this average. In 1907, in about 232 days of navigation Duluth shipped *Address delivered before the National Geo- graphic Society, Washington, D. C.