GAS-WORKS. 



OTOGKAP1IICAL K.\ri.Mi:.\TI'Ns 



r--!it lit' 1-" per imniun where there were not 

 than tliirty scholars. Tbo educational 

 f tlie Bureau show the following 

 number of schools, teachers, and scholars: 



The financial statistics show tho following 

 ptfl and expenditures from March, 1805, to 

 Auiru-t :!0, 1870: 



BECEIPT8. 



Congressional Appropriations $10,780,75000 



l..iiuili'., etc 214,000 00 



Hospitals 50,000 00 



Poor of Washington 55,000 00 



K fuiri'Ps' and Freedmcn's Fund I,&43,ti39 21 



ScboolFuiid 79,902 08 



Total $13,028,30187 



EXPENDITURES. 



Salaries and Running Expenses $3,889.480 78 



Charitable Purposes 6,316,808 96 



Education 3,572,365 94 



Transportation 233,908 88 



CnlliTtlon of Bounties 279,655 14 



Balances on hand (August 31, 1870) 800,146 63 



Total..'. $13,033,304 27 



This does not include $2,880,788, which was 

 taken from stores on hand at the close of the 

 war, and furnished in tho shape of rations to 

 the poor and the hungry. Had these stores 

 been sold, they would not probably have real- 

 i/.cil one-third of their cost. But, charging 

 them at their cost price, tho whole expense of 

 the Bureau has been $15,:;".'.'."'.':.'. 27, anj the 

 amount expended for charitable purposes, 

 $7,677,590.'.Mt. 



In a debate in tho Spanish Cortes, Senor 

 Castellar pointed to the work of tho Freed- 

 men's Bureau as a triumphant refutation of 

 the assertions of the superiority of a monar- 

 chy to a republic. And in his report to the 

 authorities of France on public instruction in 

 this country, M. Hoppin says that nothing re- 

 flects more honor on the United States than 

 tho zeal which the Government and private 

 associations displayed during the most terrible 

 periods of the great war of secession to assure 

 to the negroes of the South the means of ex- 

 istence, and to erect schools for them and their 

 children. Without doubt, the foundation which 

 has been thus laid will secure the intellectual 

 improvement of a large portion of the present 

 youthful colored generation. 



G- 



GAS-WORKS. During the year 1870 the 

 greater portion of the Bechton Chartered Gas 

 Company's Works has been completed, which 

 will manufacture for the (London) City Gas- 

 Works, the Victoria Dock Gas-Works, and for 

 themselves. This establishment is a great 

 engineering work ; one thousand tons of coal 

 per day will be distilled in the retorts when 

 in full operation. The coals are landed on 

 a curved pier 400 feet in length, bending 

 into the river, and laid with rails, which con- 

 nect with railways running all round and 

 through the works. There are four retort- 

 houses, each 360 feet long and 90 feet wide, 

 and the two chimneys connected with the re- 

 tort covers are 100 feet high. The coal-stores 

 are 770 feet long and 120 feet wide. The four 

 buildings for tho purifiers and scrubbers are 

 each 250 feet square, the two boiler-houses are 

 each 52 feet by 83 feet, the two meter-houses 

 80 feet by 30 feet, the engines and exhausters 

 occupy two similar-sized buildings, and in the 

 rear are well-built sheds, 350 feet long by 100 

 feet deep, for the manufacture and storage of 

 ammonia, etc. On the left of the works are 

 four gasholders, each 180 feet diameter and 40 

 feet deep, with a storage capacity of one mill- 

 ion foot each. The gas is convoyed to the city 

 through eight miles of 48-inch pipes, whence 

 it will be conducted to Westminster through 

 three miles of 36-inch pipes. This is the largest 

 gas-works in the world, and, when in full 

 work, will produce 10,000,000 cubic feet of 

 gas per day. 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND 

 DISCOVERIES IN 1870. The record of geo- 

 . graphical discovery, in 1870, is less fruitful 

 in great events, or even great enterprises, 

 than any year of the previous decade. More, 

 perhaps, may have been accomplished than is 

 now known, for some of the expeditions un- 

 dertaken in the previous year required a long 

 time for their completion ; but, so far as intelli- 

 gence has been received, most of the various 

 enterprises attempted or projected in 1869 

 had either failed utterly, or remained without 

 result at the close of 1870. The great war be- 

 tween France and Germany, and the threaten- 

 ing condition of political affairs throughout 

 Europe, are responsible for apart, though by no 

 means the whole of this. The war and the 

 downfall of the French Empire prevented the 

 starting of the French Arctic Expedition, and 

 the recall of General Faidherbe from Sene- 

 gambia, and of some of the ablest French of- 

 ficers from Algeria, effectually checked the 

 projected African expeditions which were pre- 

 paring to go out under the protection and di- 

 rection of these officers. The same cause also 

 effectually hindered all explorations in Cam- 

 bodia and Southeastern Asia generally, which 

 promised to be so fruitful in interesting obser- 

 vations. 



The German as well as the English, Swed- 

 ish, and Russian efforts to reach the high lati- 

 tudes of the Arctic regions, and even the Pole 

 itself, proved failures, mainly from an unpro- 

 pitious season; and, though the summer and 



