644 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 
The immediate effect was all that could be desired; a very considerable 
shifting of the channel was secured, the erosion checked, and the threatened 
‘“cut off” prevented. 
During the next session Congress made a second appropriation of twenty- 
five thousand dollars for the continuance of the work in accordance with the origi- 
nal plan, which sum has not yet been expended. 
With the opening of the river in the spring, active operations will be re- 
sumed. The general plan under which the work is to be done contemplates. 
shore protection, and the development of new shore lines from Quindaro to Wy- 
andotte, by the building up of bars and the straightening of the river on the 
crossings. Lengthening, rather than shortening of the river is designed, while 
the stream is to be kept within its present shore lines. 
Attempts by corporations to control the Missouri river and improve it have 
been heretofore abortive, giving rise to the popular notion that the stream is be- 
yond control, but the work done by the government during the past two years. 
shows conclusively that the river can be improved, that permanent shore lines. 
can be secured and a permanent channel maintained, and this at a trifling cost, 
when its importance is considered. 
The United States engineer now stationed here, Mr. J. W. Nier, in pur- 
suance of orders received by him from the Government, will at once proceed to: 
construct two scows to be used in the Missouri river improvement, in the bend 
above Wyandotte, the coming season. The boats are to be about 100 feet in 
length and 22 feet wide, and will be built at the Wyandotte levee. The ma- 
_chinery for the boats is now on the way. Each craft will be outfitted with a large 
boiler thirty feet in length, weighing sixteen and a half tons, a compound Worth- 
ington duplex grading pump, a pair of shears and a steam capstan. 
The Worthington pumps have been used with success at Omaha and other 
places. With an ordinary head of steam 750 gallons of water are discharged per 
minute. This stream thrown against a bank will remove more earth in a given 
time than 200 laborers. Last year, on account of the scarcity of labor and the 
refusal of men to work at the prices paid, work on the river improvements was 
for a time suspended. By means of the new appliances the engineers will be 
rendered comparatively independent. The cost of grading will also be greatly 
lessened. . ° 
It is expected that the boats will be completed within three months, and 
that the work done in 1881 will not only be preventive, but fully and perma- 
nently protective. i 
THE ALMACANTAR. 
S. C. CHANDLER, JR. 
I desire to call the attention of practical astronomers to a new instrument 
for the determination of time and latitude, the principles of the construction of 
which are, I believe, novel, and which seems to possess advantages entitling it 
