The Portland daily press., 1897-05-08

Royal River Is Not Justified at Pres
ent-Recommends improvements at
Machias and Roothbay Harbor.
ESPECIAL 10 THE PREss.l
Washington, May 1.-THE Secretary of
War has transmitted to Congress the re-
port of Lieutenans Colonel Damrell on
the projects for the improvement of
several rivers and Eharbors in Maine.
Of the Harraseekit river at Freeport,
Colonel Dalnren says that a survey of the
river was made in 1881 and project was
sumbftted for channel sixty feet wide
and three feet deep at mean low water up
to Freeport, at an estimated cost Of 49,
600. A new survey was made under the
river and harbor act of 1888, and a report
was submitted for project for channel
five feet deep at mean low water, and
about fourteen feet at high tide. This was
adopted and with the 81 900 dollars appro-
priated channel was obtained with a
width of ninety feet and depth of four
teen feet at high tide, central cut
seventy feet wide having depth Of
seventeen feet at high tide A channel of
seventy feet wide mad twenty feet deep
at high tide can be obtained at an esti-
mated cost of $4,000; but as the prospective
commerce upon which the previous i'm
proyement was based has not developed,
and as there seems to be no immediate
prospect of it, it would seem that further
improvement might wait until there
should appear to be a need of it,
OF Royal River, Colonel Damrell says
that the survey there shows at present
channel with six feet depth at mean low
water from the mouth up to the head of
navigation, about three miles. The i'm
provement desired is to deepen this to
seven feet, and to widen it where it is
narrow from Yarmouth down about one
third of a mile, the depth below being al
ready sufficient. The cost Of the improve
ment would be about $44O0 The amount
of commerce on theriver is only about
1000 tons annual. ~ there is not much
prospect of an increase. Therefore Colonel
Damrell is of the opinion that the expen-
diture would not be justified
. Of the improvements desired at Booth
bay Harbor the report says th at the CON
ditions appear to be favorable for the i'm
provement. First, a wharf line should be
established around the harbor and the
area included dredged out to the depth of
fifteen feet. The cost should not exceed
forty thousand dollars The survey for
the work would cost about five hundred
dollars, and if this survey shows that the
improvements would not cost over forty
thousand dollars Colonel Dan1rell is of
the opinion that they should be made.
In relation to the harbor at Machias the
report reviews the work which has al
ready been done. A survey of the river
was made in 1872, and project for it's
improvement modified in 1876 was com
pleted in 1877 at a cost of thirty-two
thousand dollars. The project as modified
front of the wharves at Machias to a
plane one-half foot below mean low
water, and opening a channel between
Machias Falls and the draw bridge one
hundred feet wide and six feet deep at
mean low water. In 1894 a survey showed
oAtfeS VIZ
except at Middle Rock had almost com
pletely been destroyed by fresh accumula-
tions of refuse from saw mills at and
above Machias Falls The project which
is now again proposed is to open a chan
mel one hundred and twenty five feet wide
and seven feet deep at mean low water,
except at and above Middle Rock. The
estimated cost of the improvement is fifty
thousand dollars. Colonel Damrell is of
the opinion that the river is worthy of
improvement, but it is reported that the
mill waste is still going into the river in
such gu antilles as to fill up any improve
ment which might be made. The annual
cost of keeping the channel clear cannot
be estimated with any degree of accuracy,
and it might be so reasonable as to be
warranted by the benefits to be gained by
commerce.
In regard to the removal of the wreck
of the old schooner "Sawn," sunk in
Marsh river about one mile above it's
junction with the Penobscot over fifty
years ago, Colonel Damrell says that the
schooner was loaded with rough granite
and is a dangerous obstruction to vessels
going to the wharf Of the Mt Waldo
Granite Company wharf. The removal
would cost about one thousand dollars,
and he thinks that it should be done.
The report favors a survey of Chandler S
river, which empties into Englishman's
Bay, about thirty miles west of the st.
Croix. There is considerable commerce
on the river to and from between the
granite quarries and their market and
the river needs to be deepened to allow al
larger class of vessels to go along.
Bangor harbor needs the dredging of a
channel ninety feet wide and two feet
deep at extreme low tide or fifteen feet at
ordinary high tide, in Kenduskeag river
from it's mouth up to Kenduskeag bridge,
and deepening the harbor of Bangor in
front of the Boston and Bangor steam
boat wharf to eleven feet from the harbor
line out. The cost would be s106so for
Kenduskeag channel and 81, $40 for the
other work. Colonel Damrell recommends
Il