The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-05-31
ON SOUTH cAoRLlNAs COAST.
How Uncle Sam Conducts His River |
and Harbor Improvements.


and Harbor Improvements.
Georgetown Light House, S. c.. May
2I.-(Special correspondence "A mar
row ship of case sand with the waters
of Wingate Bay on one side and the
Atlantic Ocean on the other consti--
tutes all that is visible of North Is
land. in the State Of South Carolina,
where your humble servant is now
temporarily at work. They say, that
during a heavy storm. even that much
is covered by the heavy breakers which
roll 1cross from the ocean to the bay
and then everything gets damp.
Georgetown is some II miles away, at
the head of the bay, and we have no
facilities whatever i'm the way of mail.
Sometimes pilot boat, on her way to
sea. will bring a letter if it happens
to be handed him; otherwise we try to
do the best we can. Wonder how
newspaper would look if one should
| happens to wander down here.
The most striking features of the
| landscape, indeed the only feature
which would constitute scenery, is
sand simple fine. white, clean sand.
which the wind heaps up in snowy
| hillocls and Immediately proceeds to
| carve then into fantastic shapes and
| move them elsewhere
a little back from the beach, the
sVainps and marshes begin and the
| rice fields are showing their bright
| grin. and level areas. 1t is here the
citizen Of the purest African descent is
| found to flourish and their peculiar
foreign-sounding patics seems almost
uniutelligible to the ears of a Tar Heel
Other features peculiar to this see
| ton | must not overlook, the mosqui-
| toes, palmettOs, alligatOrs are Till
man bottles" The former are numer-
Gus. able-bodied, hungry and persis-
tent, while the latter may be found
| lying about in the most unlikely
| places or floating on the water in a
condition of mucous desuctude
| They are usually dry, inside. as the
| desert of Sahara and, but for the odor
which clings to them and the name
| blown in the bottle, a stranger would
not know the wherefore of so much
useless glass lying about Perhaps
| some future antiquarian will wonder
| as to the sort of people they were,
who used 50 mnay glass vessels of
| one standard pattern-all ornament
| ed with a palmetto tree, for they will
continue to be picked up ages after the
| name of Tillman and dispensaries shall
have persisted from the face of the
| earth.
| On this bare strip of sand is the light
! house and residence of the keeper
| with several other rough houses and
ishermen's cabins. 1t is now the sea-
son for catching sturgeon and a fleet
of little boats go out every day for
their harvest The sturgeon are sought
| for mainly to obtain the roe, from
| which cavaire is made. This roe is
| prepared with salt and shipped in
| small barrels, most of it finding a
ready sale in Russia, where it is much
sought after. The flesh is now so cheap
as to barely pay the expense of ship
| ment.
Our party consists of some eight
men, all members of the United States
| Engineers Department., and the work
at present is the survey of Bottle chan
| mel. at the mouth of Wingate Bay. 1t
is not such work as land surveying, for
| the measurements are done in the
| water. The shores and permanent
| marks or signals are carefully meas
| ured by triangulation and from these
points the other features are deter
| mined. Many thousand soundings
have to be made, at regular intervals,
to ascertain the depth and character
of the bottom. The sounding boat
with it's crew steams back and forth,
| in parallel lines, sounding the depth
| every quarter of a minute and show
ing a small flag every full minute. The
position of the boat at each minute
of the day is observed by men on the
fixed stations along the shore and the
exact angle or bearing of the boat re-
| corded. These angles are afterwards
laid down on the chart, showing the
| precise spot on the water where the
boat was and the depth at that place.
After the entire space has been meas
ured and put on the chart it will be
practically n picture of the bottom,
showing the depth of water every
where and every hidden danger to
navigation. 1t is curious to see the
many strange bends, turns and contor-
tions of the main ship channel and
the queer shapes, sizes and positions of
the shoals. 1t is the business of the
pilot to know all those channels, even
in the darkest night, and so be able
to steer a vessel safely into port. But
for the fact that such channels and
changes are constantly changing it
| would not often be necessary To sur