528 NAVY, UNITED STATES. 



NEBRASKA. 



Congress, by reducing the day's labor of The available resources for the fiscal y 



those who work for the Government to eight i^^^^^iX^ 



hours instead of ten, imposed on the depart- earned to the surplus fund of the Treasury 



ment, as a necessity, the employment of a on the 30th September, 1867 65,000,000 



larger number of hands to execute the same Leaving subject to draft $38,465,754 



amount of work ; and if it had been intended Tbere re ined in the Treas ury on the 30th 



that the per diem compensation for a working ! ' ' ' 18 ^^ 



day of ten hours in outside establishments Showing an expenditure during the fiscal 



should, under the Statute, fix Jhe rate of wages Tn Tre?ources for the fiscal 'year 1868-''69 are $2 ' 12 ' 3&4 



in navy yards, twenty per cent, would have as follows: 



been added to the cost of labor. ^S^^^^^m":\\\":::". 



The estimates for labor for the current year f ' 



were based on the standard which had always Total $35,701,710 



previously been recognized and observed ; but Th &^Aa*?? * . . - *. J^. * 



Congress, while diminishing the appropriations 



below the estimates, also lessened .the amount Le fi a g e 1 ^?r d and available for the 



. T ! ii 1*1 i 11 i*i**i US CHI yt'cir lov)o D7. 



of labor to be daily rendered by each mdivid- The estimates for the fiscal year ending June 



ual workman. While, therefore, the depart- 30, 1870, are as follows : 



ment was furnished with less means, it was ^TWtt^Maaa 



compelled to employ one-fifth more laborers expenses in navy yards 1,285,996 



than in preceding years for the same amount ^i^^^^f^*.^.^.^.^; 435,339 



of work. Ordnance, repair of magazines, etc 450.'000 



The Naval Academy daring the year, was Sg^SSSSftSiiK '.go; 



under the charge or Admiral Porter, ihe Naval Academy... f. 210^584 



number of graduates at the close of the acad- Naval Observatory and Nautical Almanac 40^500 



pmip vPflr wn QPvpntv TIITIP tlm nnmh^r nf Repair and preservation of vessels 3,790,500 



emic year was seventy-nine, trie numoer < steam machinery, tools, etc 1,305,000 



admissions forty-nine; the total number of Provisions and clothing 1,672,500 



midshipmen at the academy at the close of Repairsof naval hospitals and laboratories.. 46,000 



the year was two hundred and eighty-six. gSSWSBS^^^V/.:^::::::: iSw? 

 Several midshipmen have been appointed from 



States recently admitted to representation in Total $20,992,602 



Congress, but subsequent to such admission. NEBRASKA. Covering an area of more 



The importance of the States on the Pacific than seventy thousand English square miles, 



coast, the increasing intimacy of their citizens this young State is yet very thinly settled, 



with the islands of that ocean, the growing The number of inhabitants scarcely amounts 



trade with China and Japan, and the varied to fifty thousand. She possesses, however, 



interests of commercial interprise which are not a few cities and towns as Omaha, Ne- 



opening from the Indian Ocean to the islands braska City, Lincoln, and others. The most 



of the North, require that a more complete and profitable occupations of the people seem to be 



systematic survey should be made of the North agriculture and the raising of cattle. 



Pacific Ocean. The Brooks or Midway Islands Lincoln sprang up, as it were, out of the 



were discovered a few years ago and recently prairie, in midsummer, 1867, and before 



surveyed by order of the Navy Department, eighteen months had elapsed was grown to 



The charts of the survey represent two islands such an extent in buildings and residents that, 



enclosed in a lagoon, forming a perfectly secure on this account as well as the prospective bene- 



harbor, accessible to vessels drawing less than fits resulting from its local position to the whole 



twenty feet, and affording an abundant supply community, the people by a majority of votes 



of pure, fresh water. These islands, which declared it to be the capital of Nebraska. In 



are uninhabited and unoccupied, are situated accordance with this decision the seat of gov- 



about midway between California and East- ernment, which, during her territorial condi- 



ern Asia, on the track of the mail steam- tion and the first two years of her existence 



ships, and furnish the only known refuge for as a State, had always been in Omaha, was by 



vessels passing directly between the two con- the end of 1868 removed from the last-named 



tinents. place and permanently located in Lincoln. A 



It is represented by the naval officers who suitable building destined for that purpose had 



made the survey, and also by Rear- Admiral been in course of erection for some time, and 



Thatcher, that the bar at the entrance of the a portion finished, to accommodate the Execu- 



harbor might be deepened at a very small ex- tive, and both Houses of the Legislature for 



pense, and a port vastly superior to Honolulu opening and holding their respective sessions 



be thus opened to mariners, where a depot at the beginning of 1869. 



might be established for the supply of provi- From the numerous railway lines projected, 



sions, water, and fuel to the ocean steam lines, and even partly executed, in other States 



and a refuge afforded to merchant-ships navi- around Nebraska, but chiefly from the works 



gating that ocean. in course of construction for the Union Pacific 



The resources and expenses of the navy have Railroad, which runs along on the north bank 



been as follows : of the Platte, and so traverses the State in the 



