ENGINEERING. 



279 



were mostly poor and the amounts involved 

 small, ami it was ii"ted tlmt there weiv Iml few 

 appeals from the summary court.-, and lliat I In; 

 majority of appeals did not succeed. On the 

 criminal side there was u diminution of the 

 graver crimes, such as murder and brigandage, 

 while an increased number of convictions for 

 lesser olTenses proved greater activity on the 

 part of the tribunals and the police, The num- 

 ber of murders had decreased from 347 in 1891 

 to 289 in 1892. The activity and efficiency of 

 the courts was attributed to the surveillance of 

 the Judicial Committee of Inspection. 



The mixed tribunals were instituted in 1876 

 as a substitute for consular jurisdiction, and 

 have done good service. In February, 1894, these 

 courts may, in accordance with the rules of their 

 creation, either expire or be prolonged for 

 another period of five years. Looking forward 

 to that date, the Judiciary Adviser to the 

 Khedive, Justice Scott, proposed that the juris- 

 diction of the mixed tribunals should be more 

 strictly defined, in order to check a tendency to 

 encroach on the native courts. His reforms pro- 

 posed that it should be authoritatively settled 

 that the mixed tribunals have no jurisdiction 

 concerning land where only natives were af- 

 fected ; that the Land Registry Office should be 

 placed under the control of the Minister of 

 Justice, but be clerically administered by quali- 

 fied Europeans ; that a court of revision, com- 

 posed partly of Europeans and partly of native 

 lawyers, should be instituted with a view to the 

 establishment of a system of jurisprudence on 

 all purely land questions ; that a cour de conflit, 

 similarly constituted, should settle in final ap- 

 peal all differences as to the due competency of 

 the two systems; that the mixed tribunal at 

 Mansura should be dissolved and replaced by 

 four mixed courts of summary justice, with ju- 

 risdiction up to E. 100, to be located at Port 

 Said, Mansura, Tanta, and Assiut. The Council 

 of Ministers threw out the propositions relating 

 to the Land Registry Office and the Court of Re- 

 vision as being against the interests of Egyptians, 

 but agreed to submit the. other three to the 

 powers for their decision. The entire plan of 

 Justice Scott had received the approval of the 

 Mustafa Fehmi Cabinet. 



On April 18 a circular was issued by Riaz 

 Pasha, settling differences that had arisen be- 

 tween the ministry and the Inspector-General of 

 Police. It recognized the Inspector-General as 

 the head of the police, and declared him respon- 

 sible to the Premier for the public security. It 

 also provided that the provincial commandants 

 should be responsible to the provincial governors, 

 and that the latter should correspond on police 

 matters with the Inspector-General. As the 

 police is an entirely Kn^lish department, this 

 circular was regarded as showing a disposition 

 to adopt English views, and to substitute a con- 

 ciliatory for a hostile policy. 



KNUiNKElllNtt. Canals. The North -Sea- 

 Baltic Canal has been carried forward with the 

 slow carefulness characteristic of German engi- 

 neering. Its completion for service is officially 

 announced for 1894. The ship canals from the 

 sea to Manchester, England, and across the penin- 

 sula at Corinth, Greece, have been opened to 

 commerce, and the Chicago Drainage Works are 



faet approaching completion. All these hare 

 been described in recent issues of the " Annual 

 Cyclopirdia ." 



Water Supply. The city of Galveston, 

 Texas, has acquired an apparently exhaust less 

 supply of pure water by the operation unprece- 

 dented, it is believed of damming a subterrane- 

 an river. It was known that such a river existed 

 within a practicable distance, its bed being in a 

 valley about 1,000 feet wide. The city engineer, 

 after much opposition and derision, succeeded in 

 getting an appropriation, and sank five trial 

 wells to define the width of the stream. This 

 done, he tunneled from well to well, making a 

 continuous excavation, against the down-stream 

 side of which he built a masonry dam, its foun- 

 dation going below the bed of the stream, which 

 was clearly defined. Water accumulated so fast 

 that a central section had to be left open, and 

 during the last days of active work a powerful 

 steam pump was employed to keep the water 

 down so that the workmen could finish. The 

 trial wells still remain open, and although the 

 city mains are full, water is constantly flowing 

 over the top of the subterranean dam. 



Tunnels. The Continental Divide has been 



Eierced by the engineers of the Colorado Mid- 

 ind Railroad, about 20 miles west of Leadville. 

 The work is known as the Busk-Ivanhoe Tun- 

 nel, from the two stations at its respective ends. 

 It is 9,394 feet long, 1,300 feet below the crest of 

 the mountain range, and 10,800 feet above the 

 sea level. Work was begun at both ends Oct. 8, 

 1890, and the divide was pierced 1,000 feet west 

 of the middle point, on Oct. 17, 1893. As usual 

 in such works, there was a race between the two 

 gangs of workmen, but the eastern gang won, 

 owing partly to troublesome inflows of water in 

 the western half of the work. Mr. B. H. Bryant, 

 chief engineer of the road, conceived the idea of 

 this tunnel, which avoids 10 miles of heavy grade 

 track, and will, it is estimated, save the railroad 

 $70,000 a year in running expenses. The total 

 cost of the work was about $1,000,000, which is 

 very moderate, since this portion of the back- 

 bone of the continent is nearly all solid granite. 

 Mr. W. H. Leffingwell was the engineer in charge 

 of the work. 



Ferry Bridge. At Bilbao. Spain, a new 

 type of bridge has been opened recently, which 

 possesses merits that commend themselves for 

 comparative cheapness and utility, where it is 

 desirable to keep a water way open for the pas- 

 sage of large vessels and at the same time pro- 

 vide for the accommodat i >n of shore-going traffic. 

 A suspension bridge is first erected at such 

 height above the water as is demanded by the 

 local conditions. Upon this a truck is arranged 

 to run back and forth, and from the truck a 

 platform is suspended, by means of wire ropes, 

 suitable for the use of passengers or vehicles. No 

 costly approaches are necessary, since the road- 

 way of the bridge is used only by the truck or 

 traveler, and the suspended passenger platform 

 is readily adjustable to its piers without reference 

 to the rise and fall of tides. Don Alberto de 

 Palacio is the inventor of this device. He is 

 also the designer and architect of a superb com- 

 bination of bridge and building in Bilbao, which 

 rests upon arches over a river, permitting the 

 passage of barges and the like, and rendering 



