230 EADS, JAMES BUCHANAN". 



ECUADOR. 



mouth of the Ohio. This magnificent channel 

 was to be made permanent by putting an end 

 to the caving of its banks. In 1879 Congress 

 authorized the creation of the Mississippi River 

 Commission, to consist of seven members, of 

 which Mr. Ea<ls was one. The jetty system 

 was adopted, and two reaches of the Missis- 

 sippi Plum Point, twenty miles long, and 

 Lake Providence, thirty-five miles long were 

 selected for improvement. The low - water 

 depth of the former was only five feet, while 

 the latter, 400 miles farther down the river, 

 had a depth of nearly six feet. Permeable 

 contraction works, similar to those used at the 

 South Pass, were put in position in one season 

 in the period between two floods, and the 

 effect produced by the works during the first 

 flood that followed was marvelous. The depth 

 was incrensed through the upper reach to 

 twelve feet at low water, and through the 

 lower reach to fifteen feet, and scores of mill- 

 ions of cubic yards of sediment were deposited 

 behind the permeable works, through the 

 checking of the current. New shore-lines of 

 an approximately uniform width were devel- 

 oped ; but later Congresses refused to continue 

 sufficient appropriations, although enough had 

 been accomplished to show the entire practi- 

 cability of the plan. Mr. Eads examined and 

 reported on the bar at the mouth of the St. 

 John's River, Fla., in 1878 ; on the improve- 

 ments of Sacramento river in 1880 ; on the 

 harbor of Toronto, Canada, in 1881 ; on the 

 ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 

 1882 ; on the harbor of Galveston, Texas, in 

 1884; and had been personally consulted by 

 the Emperor of Brazil concerning the harbors 

 of his dominions. During his visits to Europe 

 he inspected the mouths of nearly every river 

 flowing into the Baltic Sea and the German 

 Ocean, and also the river-courses of the Rhone, 

 the Danube, including the works at their 

 mouths, and the Theiss in Hungary, and like- 

 wise the Suez, Amsterdam, and Rhone ship 

 canals. On the occasion of the Parliamentary 

 inquiry into the merits of the Manchester Ship 

 Canal, Mr. Eads was retained bythe Mersey 

 docks and harbor board of Liverpool, at a fee 

 of 3,500, said to be the largest ever yet paid 

 to an engineer. His evidence caused the re- 

 jection of the scheme as it then stood, and the 

 modification by which the canal was laid out 

 along the wide part of the Mersey. The last 

 great enterprise to which Mr. Eads devoted his 

 attention was the ship-railway across the isth- 

 mus of Tehuantepec. A valuable concession 

 was obtained from the Mexican Government, 

 and for several years Mr. Eads endeavored to 

 persuade the United States Government to 

 undertake the building of this railway, but he 

 finally gave it up, and formed a private com- 

 pany for its construction. He was elected 

 President of the St. Louis Academy of Sci- 

 ences in 1872, and held that office for two 

 terms. During the same year he was elected 

 to the National Academy of Sciences. He 



addressed the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Sciences, of which he was a 

 member, in 1881, on the improvement of the 

 Mississippi, and also on the Tehuantepec Ship- 

 Railway. In 1884 he received the Albert 

 Medal from the British Society of Arts, which 

 was then for the first time given to an Ameri- 

 can. He was a member cf other scientific so- 

 cieties, and had held the office of Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the American Society of Civil Engi- 

 neers in 1882-'83. The State University of 

 Missouri, in 1877, conferred upon him the de- 

 gree of LL. D. His writings and professional 

 papers appeared variously, but the most im- 

 portant have been collected and published as 

 the " Addresses and Papers of James B. Eads, 

 together with a Biographical Sketch " (St. 

 Louis, 1884). 



ECIADOR, an independent republic in South 

 America. (For details relating to area, popu- 

 lation, and territorial divisions, fee u Annual 

 Cyclopaedia " for 1885.) 



Government. The President is Don Jos6 

 Maria Placido Caamaflo, whose term of office 

 will expire on June 30, 1888. The Vice-Presi- 

 dent is Don Pedro Jose Cevallos. The Cabi- 

 net was composed as follows: Interior, For- 

 eign Affairs, Public Instruction, and Charity, 

 Sefior J. Modesto Espinosa ; Finance and Pub- 

 lic "Works, Sefior V. L. Salazar; War and 

 Navy, Gen. J. M. Sarasti. The Minister of 

 Ecuador at Washington is Dr. Don Antonio 

 Flores. The Consul-General of Ecuador at 

 New York is Don Domingo L. Ruiz. The 

 American Consul-General at Guayaquil is 

 Owen McGarr. 



Finances. The Government intends soon to 

 pay a great portion of the so-called English 

 debt, which in 1885 amounted to 1,824,000, 

 on which the coupons have remained unpaid 

 since 1807. The interest on this debt is 1 per 

 cent, per annum as long as the duties collected 

 at Guayaquil do not exceed $400,000 per an- 

 num, and 25 per cent, of the excess of such 

 revenue at Guayaquil till 6 per cent, per an- 

 num interest be reached. This foreign indebt- 

 edness arose from the conversion of Ecuador's 

 share in the old Colombian debt. Further- 

 more, the Government will distribute the state 

 lands that the holders of Ecuador land-war- 

 rants are entitled to. The budget for the fiscal 

 year 1886 fixed the income at $2,421,403, and 

 the outlay at the same figure. 'The Guayaquil 

 custom-house vielded in 1886 a revenue of 

 $1.940,536, being $845,335 more than in 1885. 

 The Banco del Ecuador of Quito declared a 

 dividend of 20 per cent, for the year 1886. 

 The Banco de Credito Hipotecario has made a 

 contract with the municipality of Guayaquil to 

 advance a considerable sum for water- works. 



Navy. Early in 1887 their arrived at Guaya- 

 quil the "Cotopaxi."a new steel transport, 

 which the Government has purchased. This 

 vessel was originally built in 1884 for the 

 Chilian navy. The armament consists of two 

 Armstrong guns. The machinery is very 



