X. H. G. McKINNEY. 



are a most valuable and instructive record of the construc- 

 tion of locks, weirs, wharves, and river training works in 

 all parts of the States. By way of expressing my own 

 indebtedness to these reports, I may mention that when I 

 had the design of the Bourke Lock and Weir in hand, feel- 

 ing dissatisfied with the common arrangement of working 

 the Chanoine shutters by means of a tripping bar operated 

 from one end of the weir, I searched every authority I 

 could find for a record of the successful working of some 

 more trustworthy and simpler method, and I found it in 

 these reports. The success of the Pasqueau shoe for the 

 shutter props of the movable weirs constructed by the 

 United States Engineers on the Great Kanawha River in 

 Virginia emboldened me to adopt that principle at Bourke. 

 As regards the success of the shutter weir at Bourke, 

 Colonel Home, r.e., c.s.i., who had risen through all the 

 grades of the Irrigation Department of India till he reached 

 the top as Inspector General, and who was familiar with 

 all the types of weir used there informed me, in reply to a 

 question on the subject, that in designing a weir in con- 

 nection with the proposed Murrumbidgee Southern Canal, 

 he did not think I could adopt a better style than that 

 constructed at Bourke. The Pasqueau arrangement, so far 

 as I could ascertain, had been used on only one weir in 

 France, although it is the invention of a French engineer. 

 The invention is a recent one, and its prompt adoption in 

 the United States shows that the practice of the Govern- 

 ment engineers there is thoroughly up to date. 



The most recent addition to the duties of the United 

 States engineers is the construction of reservoirs for the 

 storage of flood waters so as to afford the means of extend- 

 ing the period and range of navigation on the upper parts 

 of rivers. 



Considering the immense extent and incalculable value 

 of the inland navigation of the United States, as well as 



