1901.] HAUPT — METHODS OF IMPROVING OCEAN BARS. 77 



As the depth entirely across the bar has been increased from six 

 to over fifteen feet at a cost of about $30,000 per foot, with a large 

 area having depths exceeding twenty feet, it remains a fact that 

 there is no record known to the writer exhibiting equal efficiency 

 and economy. 



Yet the report illogically concludes from these erroneous pre- 

 mises and misconstructions : " For these reasons, a single reaction 

 breakwater is not recommended for the improvement of Brunswick 

 bar." 



How groundless " these reasons" are will no doubt appear from 

 the previous analysis, but the primum mobile for the failure to re- 

 commend it may be better understood by stating that for some 

 fourteen years the attention of the Government has been invited 

 to this improvement through its engineer officers. As long ago as 

 the 1 6th of March, 1888, a Board reported to the Chief of Engi- 

 neers the following conclusion : 



1 'The views are purely theoretical, are unconfirmed by experi- 

 ence, and contain nothing not already well known which has a 

 useful application in the improvement of our harbors." 



The Board, however, cited no precedents, although requested to 

 do so, and all applications for permission to make a demonstra- 

 tion remained unanswered. 



Again, in 1890, the officer in charge of the jetties at Cumberland 

 Sound, after mature study, submitted on his own responsibility a 

 plan involving the use of a single, curved, reaction breakwater, 

 properly located on the windward side of the channel, at an esti- 

 mated saving of $1,108,004, of which $125,000 was for the removal 

 of part of the south jetty, which he reported as being "improperly 

 located." On March 11, 1891, a Board of Engineers, composed 

 with one exception of the same officers who had made the original 

 adverse report, stated as follows : 



" The Board does not think that a single jetty on the north side 

 of the channel, curving gently to the south, would secure the deep 

 water needed, but is of the opinion lhat two jetties will be needed. 

 .... The opinion that such a curved channel conforms to the 

 natural requirements of the site and opposes the action of the nat- 

 ural forces less than any other, is believed to be fallacious." 



In consequence, work on the two jetties was continued with the 

 disastrous results already stated. 



Again, after all former attempts to deepen the channel at Aransas 



PROC AMER. PHILOS. SOC XL. 166. F. PRINTED JULY 17, 1901. 



