The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-12-24

COAST SURVEY REPORT FOR 1S65.-The an
nual report of the Superintendent of the Coast
Survey, which accompanies the report of the
Secretary Of the Treasury and is laid before
Congress with the Presidents message, is the
briefest possible sketch of the operations of
the Survey during the year. The permanent
record of the work is preserved in the elabor-
ate volumes appearing usually a year or two
later, and containing not only the details of
field and office work, and the results of the
years work, in the shape of tables and charts,
but those special reports and scientific discus
sions which by explaining aud illustrating
the ingenuity of its methods and the perfec-
tion of it's practical application of them, have
served to place the United States Coast Sur
vey in the front rank among similar under
takings. The Report for 1865 contains sketches
St Georges river and Muscle Ridge Channel,
Damariscotta River, and Kennebec and Sheep
scot rivers, in Maine-the last a finished chart
and preliminary chart of the coast of New
England from Cape Small Point to Cape Cod
The appendix contains papers by Prot. PIERCE
on the method of determining longitudes from
occultations of the Pleiades, since superseded,
or verified rather, by the application of the Am
erican method to the Atlantic cable; a report
by DR.. b. A. Gould on the declination of stand
ard time stars; discussion of the magnetic
observations at Eastport from 1860 till 1864, by
Assistant G. A. Schott; complete treatise
on the use of the plane table-hitherto desid-
erdtsna-by Assistant A. M Harrison; and
orc rcsurts " r1c PRIMARY OF the
coast of New England, prepared under the di-
rection OF Mr.. j. E. Hilgard, Assistant in
charge of the Coast Survey office, upon whom
during the last illness of Superintendent
Bache the whole direction of the work devolv-
ed, and by whom it was prosecuted with un-
faltering energy and signal ability.
CAUSE OF THE LATE RAILROAD ACCIDENT
"A New York correspondent of the Boston
Advertiser has theory which would make the
managers of the Lake Shore Road responsible
for the late terrible accident which occurred
near Angel a, New York. He says:
The cars that vent over the embankment
are known to be compromise" cars; that is to
say, their wheels are so constructed that while
they can run on the narrowest track of the
roads they connect with, they can also cover
q track that is an inch and a half wider. The
gauge of the New York Central Railroad is
four feet eight and a half inches. The COM
promise car Wne6lS are maze each three
eighths of an inch wider than usual, so that
with the axeltree they span nine and quar-
ter inches. Thus while the flange will run in
side the New York Central track, the tread or
part that rests on the rail will run on the
Lake Shore. track, but will not cover it by
three quarters of an inch, and will also allow
three quarters of an inch lateral motion to the
81 wheels ps f,s,hrila s4J .--. -.l..,t ..-.
lust before reaching the spot where the acct
dent occurred the train passed over an iron
frog for a turnout, and it is asserted publicly
in Buffalo, by gentlemen who examined the
track soon as they could reach it after the
disaster had occurred, that the rear car went
off the track upon the instant of passing the
frog. Now, then, it is believed that this three
fourths of an inch lateral motion was sufi-
Gent to allow the hange of the broken wheel
to strike the guard-rail, opposite the frog, by
swinging one way. or by swinging the
other way to strike the frog, and that was
what threw the car off the track. If this con-
clusion be correct, the compromise or nine
and-a-quarter inch guage car is responsible
for the disaster. ol sT' aH aa esa3'g3aF.