ccxlvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



The latter is 230 by 65 feet, and is nearly finished. Oppo- 

 site this will be the storehouse for steam-engineering, to be 

 400 by 500 feet, now being erected. In the rear of this is 

 the engine-house, containing an engine of sufficient power to 

 supply the entire power for the station ; and near by the 

 Fire Department house, with two steamers and a supply of 

 hose ready for use. It is proposed to divide the entire isl- 

 and into squares of 400 by 200 feet, of which there will be 

 sixty, used by the various departments for an infinite vari- 

 ety of uses. The floating -dock basin projected will be 

 thirty-one acres in extent ; a repairing basin will be thirty 

 acres ; a storage dock basin, seven acres ; and a fitting-out 

 basin, forty acres. The floating-dock basin will be on the 

 Delaware side, and connected by numerous railroad tracks 

 with various departments. The quay wall on the river front 

 will have a water-depth of twenty-eight feet, while the river 

 here is 2800 feet w r ide. The main avenue will be 125 feet 

 wide ; an avenue parallel with the river, eighty feet ; and 

 all other streets and thoroughfares, seventy-five feet. The 

 plan comprises a system of floating-docks, combined with 

 shallow basins and railroad tracks, for raising ships and 

 taking them on shore, and by this means a large number 

 of ships can be provided for at once. When all the dredg- 

 ing and digging is completed, there will be an aggregate of 

 155 acres of deep water. The area will be divided as follows: 

 The Bureau of Steam Engineering will have nineteen acres' 

 space ; Coal Bureau, thirty-six acres ; Bureau of Ordnance, 

 twenty-four acres; Bureau of Provisions, eight acres; Bu- 

 reau of Yards and Docks, seventeen acres ; and the Marine 

 Corps, twenty-one acres. When completed, the League Isl- 

 and Naval Station will be a yard as finely arranged and as 

 convenient for the purpose as can be found in the world. 



A commission of government engineers has lately made 

 an investigation and report upon a permanent plan of re- 

 claiming the alluvial lands of the Mississippi now subject to 

 inundation. The total area of the bottom-lands is approxi- 

 mately 32,000 square miles, of which but a narrow strip along 

 the main stream and its tributaries is open for cultivation ; 

 while it is affirmed that with proper protection against inun- 

 dation from the river, and efficient drainage, no less than ten 

 million acres of land of extraordinary fertility would be re- 



