The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-05-13
YAQuIaA BAY.

the Yaa,tina road is now in fair or
der for travelling, except some abonli-
nable "chuck-holes' which would be
fatal to the comfort of any buggy
travellers.
Pray use your influence with the
Supervisors to. have these seen to at
once. Half an hours work on each
would fill them up and render the
road pleasant going. On the Keyes'
Hill some. of the planking provided
last year lies on the very edge Of the
worst holes, and five minutes labor
would set these wight here.
I rode to Elk City anG left my
horse there: the next day went on
down the Yaquina in the mail car
rier's boat. The steam launch is now
running. At Cannon's place, about
six miles below Elk City we passed
the new quarry. The surface stone
has been T., moved and used to form a
landing right alongside the deep
water. SO that the scows can take on
their load of stone direct from the
quarry. Nothing could turn out bet
ter than the quarry has done. just
below the soft surface stone'li lies bed
many feet thick of hard blue stone
that the quarrymen call ''basaltic. !"
The engineers say they might go very
far indeed TO find rock better suited
to the purpose.
Down at Oneatta the work is in
full swing Before you reach the
turn in the river you hear the shrek
ing of the circular saws as they
rasp through the great logs, and the
tumult of the harnmering and caulk
ing on the scows fills the air. The
derrick scow is completed and at work
driving piles to form dock for the
scows to load brush for the mattress
es. The first great scow is completed
ani will be launched to day. She is
credit both to designers and build
ers, for solidity and convenience of
construction. She will carry between
two and three hundred tons of stone
at a time, and will cost under $l400.
The timbers for the second scow are
nearly all ready, and those for the
two great cribs lie piled up ON the
wharf ready to be put in their places.
There are about 2 hundred cords of
brush bound in bundles ready for use
piled close by, and gang of brush
cutters, amongst whom we saw the
genial face of Kit Abbey,) were all
hard at work on the hill side close at
hand. The best OF brush grows III
plenty there's and both Mr.. Polhemus
and the superintendent and foremen
expressed themselves delighted with
the material provided by nature tor
them.
+ The return of the tug has been ear
nestly pressed, and just as soon as
she gets back the work will commence
in earnest by sinking the cribs across
where the narrow south channel cut
through the sand last year.
The engineers, intend to prevent
the water finding its, way through
this channel this season, and they ex.
pect thus 10 preserve at any rate the
present depth of water on the bar.
They say that nature has done work
that would have cost thousands of
dollars: and they are most anxious to
lose none of the advantage Of it.
Mr.. Polhemus entirely confirms
the depth of 20 feet at the most shall
low place when the Genl Wright
tug went out the other day. In or
der to prevent any question as to the
accuracy, he had the casting line
measured. before the eyes of the va
rious gentlemen present This cast
was just at high water. At two
hours food they found IL feet at the
same shanowest place, and all the
rest of the courses much deeper.
So far as am able to Judge, there
is every reason to believe in the de.
termination Of all the government
Lofficers, of whatever grad to
stretch the $4,000 to its fullest ca
pacity. But with all this, the money
runs out, SO far as | can calculate, at
over 500 month. Thus by Sep
tember all the $4,000 will be spent.
If Judge Moore and his friends can
get special session of Congress call
ed, and then get special appropria-
ton passed for this work, they will
be justified in the advice they give
the inhabitants of this valley to trust
entirely to congress to get this work
done: for in that case the work will
not have TO be stopped. But such a
success as that would be, to my mind,
the only decent excuse they could
offer for the tone taken at the Albany
meeting and repeated by Judge
Moore in last weeks GAZETTE.
But if there is not the slightest
chance of such miracle being work
ed by them, | should like to know
what possible good it cap do the
farmers Of this valley to see the work
stopped; the engineers take their de-
parture, the staff of workmen it will
take months to train, all disperse to
the four points of the compass, the
scows laid up in ordinary to rot on a
mud bank and the waves left TO work
their will ON the rartlv cononlofoJ ;.+