SUGGESTED HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS, 49 
ply , and sewerage system; port defenses, fortifications, and maga- 
zines; and to lay out a town site, having in view the prospective 
increase in commercial importance of the port. The following extract 
is taken from the report of the board: 
The bay of San Luis de Apra has a deep anchoring ground, extending about 1 
mile north and south and about 2 miles east and west. It is broken, however, by 
several outlying reefs. It is protected except to the westward. Luminan Reef gives 
suflicient protection, but Kalélang Bank, with a depth of some 30 feet, does not, the 
swell making round the end of Luminan Reef even with the prevailing northeasterly 
wind. It would therefore be necessary, in order to thoroughly close the harbor 
against the ocean swell and storms, to build a breakwater along these banks, extend- 
ing from Luminan Reef to Spanish Rocks, leaving a deep entrance between Spanish 
Rocks and Orote Island 2,000 feet wide. 
The board did not recommend that such a breakwater should be built, 
on account, among other considerations, of its great cost and the 
uncertainty of the force of storms against a breakwater on this narrow 
bank with deep water so close to seaward. Even if such a breakwater 
were built, the proposal which had been made of utilizing some of the 
coral reefs in the harbor as sites for coal depots could not be followed 
out, as test borings made in these reefs showed that nearly all of them 
are formed, not of solid coral, but of coral sand interspersed with 
occasional coral heads, with growing coral of various kinds on the sur- 
face, so that they would make poor foundations for retaining walls. 
After duly considering various plans the board recommended that an 
opening 30 feet deep be dredged through the reef separating the deep 
water of the main harbor from an inner basin south of the old fort, 
Santa Cruz, and not far from the village of Sumai on Orote Peninsula; 
that this basin be enlarged by dredging, and the top of a small reef in 
the outer anchorage, near Cabras Island, be removed to a depth of 6 
fathoms; that the naval base and coaling station be established on Orote 
Peninsula, near Sumai, and be supplied with water brought from 
Paulana, a branch of the Atangtano River; that batteries be located on 
Orote Peninsula and Cabras Island with good military roads leading to 
them from the posts and boat landings; that the town site be established 
on the high land of Orote Peninsula, back of the naval station, and that 
commercial docks be constructed in places indicated by the board; and 
that a light-house be constructed on Orote Point with a light of the 
fourth order. The report of the board was published“ and handed to 
the Naval and Commerce Committees of Congress. An appropriation 
of $150,000 for the improvement of the harbor of San Luis de Apra 
passed the Senate, but the House failed to concur and the measure was 
lost. The sum of $40,000 asked for the acquisition of land was granted 
by Congress. The retention of Guam as an American possession after 
its eaptur e, as provided for in the peace protocol at the close of the Span- 
@ Report of the Guam Survey Board to the Secretary of the Nav y, July 25, 1901. 
9773—05——-4 
