Judsonia weekly advance., 1915-03-17

States coast and geodetic survey, that will ap pend.
 If some of the persons who have it in their power to vote funds for this work this notice, perhaps it would move them to keep the good work going. Could you bring this to their notice?"
 R. D. McGillinay pilot of the steamship City of Seattle, writes
 T would Nike to add that I was pilot of the steamship Cottage City when the party of gressmen and their families, headed by Speaker Cannon made an excursion to Alaska. Fortu nately we had successful trip. Little did they think of the dangerous waters they were travel ing. If had hit of these pinnacles then they would have looked out little better for our protection and the ship owners interests as well the lives of the citizens of the country.
 q must say that have sailed all over the world, and Alaska has the poorest surveyed waters that I have ever navigated"
 And what of the men who have been labor ing for years against tremendous odds to do the charting of these coasts with hopeless equipment in Secretary Redfed's "unseaworthy old tubs To push into those northern with their fogs and gales for long cruises in stanch vessels would be risky enough; but to go into them in single cylinder leaky, antiquated little junk heaps of steamers for work that is far more perilous than the layman conceives requires real grit. And it is this sort of grit which stands out prominently in the makeup of the men of the coast survey who have for so long been graphing with the fog and ice and gales of Alaskan regions.
 The end4essness of the coast surveyors work may be gathered when it is considered that never does shore line a channel remain precisely the same. New sand bars are made old ones obliterated. Volcanic activity casts up new pin nacles of rock under the sea and lowers old ones Between 1885 and 1908 Rockaway beach grew to the westward at the rate of eight inches day In 73 years Coney islands western end has showed itself westward fully 1000 feet.
 Tt is risky game" said an officer who had served on one of the three old-fashioned survey ships on the Alaskan coast. Three times during eight months of service her carried 70 miles out of our course by only moderate gales, and this despite the fact that did our best with full steam to hold the craft up to the wind But she wouldn't hold; she was too old. She should have carried 110 pounds of steam, but could not hold more than 80. The engine was one of the old type single cylinders in in Civil war times, and in anything more than full sail breeze our limit of speed to windward was two knots. With favorable winds and no sea we could some times churn along seven knots.
 Once we lay to a mile off shore for four days in gale, expecting every minute to be washed in lee shore and ground to pulp but lacking the power to claw off to clear water.
 Most of the time we had men at the pumps. For the old thing leaked badly, and we always having to put back to have her calked. h any sea we were all awash, for we had no free board, and did have open gangways. and the sea just sliced across though we were sunken log.
 And it mighty uncomfortable We had open wardroom--everyone slept, ate and lived in a single room, and we had no bathroom on that old ark. So you can imagine that we had tough time of it eight-month cruise It's just as tough for the fellows there now-they have the same boat and her accommodations aren't any better But we did the best we could. It was dif1- cult getting correct soundings and first-cass work out of rig such that, but we did pretty well. When missed rock it wasn't our fault. We never knew it. anyway. until some steamer with a few hundred passengers aboard went into 1t and sank. Then, if were around, we'd help rescue those in the water if we could, and the government would put up light buoy on the rock that the sunken ship had located
 "It's just the same up there now. As Secre- tary Redfeld said, rocks being located regu- larly by vessels striking them and going down.
 The work of probing ocean trails is interesting.
 In ascertaining the depth of the water and locat- ing all the underwater Instructions to navigation, a careful record of the fluctuations of the tide while the soundings are being made must be kept. It would not suffice to measure the depth of the water If it's height above low level were unknown for the moment of measurement To determine this registering tide gauge is used-a sort of float attached to mechanism in which a pen traces the rise and fall of the water on roll of paper which clock causes to revolye under the pen.
 Two methods of sounding are used. the one em' ploying the lead line and the other the wire sweep In iead-line soundings the process is about follows A party goes out in rowboat or launch. among it's members being two observers with sex tants and map showing the shore line and the objects whose positions have been determined by triangulation; recorder with clock and record book; leadsman and steersman. The officer in charge directs the recorder to make a note of the position of the boat. which is deter mined by the observers. and the leadsmang casts his line and calls out the depth in feet or fathoms as he draws 1t up The recorder makes note of this and also of the course along which the boat