turned surface of the ball. The tube is provided with a valve and is, in fact, nothing more than pneumatic bicycle or carriage tire. A foot pump maintains the pressure from time to time as required. The greatest pressure from within which will come upon the joint in practice will not exceed 25 pounds per square inch, which is bound to be well within the control of the pneumatic-tube packing.

The ring is a forging, while the two castings forming the ball and socket are of steel and are of the minimum thickness consistent with foundry requirements for good work. They are so formed internally as to give as small and as gradual a change to the cross section of the flowing stream of sand and water as is possible, and to reduce the obstruction to a minimum. These cast shells are riveted directly to the pipe, which projects several inches beyond the end of the pontoon. The whole joint is durable and compact, and will doubtless displace leather and rubber joints for large diameters of pipe.

DISTRIBUTION.

It is usually not enough that material excavated by the dredge shall be discharged at a certain distance. The place of deposit must.

in most cases be regulated.

The control of the end of the pontoon line may be accomplished in various ways. As the first requisite, it is necessary that the reaction of the stream as it leaves the mouth-or, perhaps better, the unbalancing produced in the interior of the discharge pipe by the free discharge-shall be compensated in order that the pontoon line may hold the position given it without tendency to twist or kink. That being accomplished, motion may be given to the discharging pontoon by altering the direction of the outflow by independent means or by both. The latter plan has been adopted here.

The simplest and the usual expedient for balancing the reaction is a "baffle plate," held by fixed or adjustable stays just back of the end of the pipe and perpendicular to the discharging stream, whose impact it receives. In the present case, the ordinary baffle plate is supplemented by two curved plates placed in front and bearing on it. These plates form a vertical wedge, which is normally in the middle of the discharge stream, divides it in equal parts, and deflects both equally to right and left. On the back of this wedge is a horizontal rack moved by a fixed pinion, which receives its rotation from the pontoon through a handwheel and a worm gear.

By moving this wedge to one side or the other, the horizontal balance of the deflected stream is destroyed and transverse motion is thus imparted to the pontoon.

It will be noted that as the discharge stream is diverted laterally

in all positions of the wedge, the effect as regards longitudinal equilibrium is the same as with the baffle plate.

To more fully and freely handle the pontoon line when not running, the designer has added a compartment to the end of the last pontoon, in which are installed two 30-horsepower three-phaseinduction electric motors, each driving directly a 20-inch screw propeller and obtaining current from the dredge. These are controlled by the operator in the pilot house, and with the adjustable baffleplate device give great freedom of movement.

STERN-WHEEL TENDER AND BARGE.

In addition to the large amount of machinery on each dredge half, accommodations are provided for seventeen officers and men above and below the main deck, with the appropriate galley and wardrooms. A blacksmith forge, with necessary tools and facilities for light repairs, is also provided.

To give greater scope to these departments, a stern-wheel boat 125 feet long by 26 feet beam and drawing but 21⁄2 feet of water has been added to the equipment. On this are provided handsome quarters for officers and bunks for ten men, with culinary arrangements complete. On the main deck is a small machine shop, with lathe, drill press, and shaper, driven by a small upright engine. Electric lights, with a search light on the pilot house, are provided. The main engine is compound and indicates 200 horsepower.

This boat is to act as tender to the dredge and carries near the bow a boom derrick and pump for placing the steel water-jet piles, which serve as anchors for the attachment of the head lines when the dredge is in operation. These piles weigh about 3,000 pounds each, are 30 feet long, and have proven very satisfactory.

An oil barge to carry fuel completes the list. It is of ordinary construction, carries six tanks of a total capacity of 130 tons, and is 80 feet long by 20-foot beam. The loaded draft is 4 feet.

TESTING THE DREDGE.

All parts of the dredge were subjected to searching trials prior to the departure of the plant for St. Petersburg. One set of tests. for one-half of the dredge was conducted at Drygoten, Belgium, on a testing ground provided by the Belgian Government, in a basin of about 40 acres; the other was conducted at Steendorp, on a bar in the River Scheldt, about 10 miles above Antwerp. Unofficial trial No. 1 at Drygoten was for the purpose of ascertaining the precision with which a given stratum could be taken, and it was found possible by raising and lowering the cutters to take a stratum of

thickness up to 7 feet.

The dredge advanced at a speed propor

tioned to the depth of the cut-fast for a shallow excavation, more slowly for a deep one. One test for an average cutting of 2 feet

....cubic yards... 2, 590

This had been forThe cultivated sur

Material was of fine, compact sand and clay. merly farm land below the plane of cultivation. face had been previously removed for the construction of levees. Two weeks later, the first official Russian trial was made in a cut parallel to the former, with higher steam, more pump revolutions, and a crew which had become familiar with the mechanism. In this trial, the result was as follows:

The material in this cut was favorable, half of it being a loose sand, the other half a compact sand mixed with clay.

The trials of the other half of the dredge were conducted on a large bar at Steendorp composed of very fine sand. Some cuts were along hard, packed material; others were in material relatively loose. None of the material on the Scheldt is of so favorable a character as the coarse, loose sand met with in the cross-over bars of the Volga and Mississippi rivers. Preliminary to the official trials, two prolonged tests were made at Steendorp to determine methods of sounding and measurement. The first test showed an average rate of advance per minute of 10. 13 feet; average cut, 5.66 feet; rate per hour, 3,824 cubic yards. In another place, the advance per minute was 9.09 feet; average cut, 4.62 feet; rate per hour, 2,803 cubic yards.

It was observed that on account of the hardness of the face, the cutters were not powered sufficiently high to supply the full carrying capacity of the pumps. The second official test, conducted at Steendorp, resulted as follows:

All tests were conducted with 700

Material, fine, compact sand. feet of discharge pipe. All measurements were in excavation, and, to determine the capacity, upwards of 5,500 soundings were taken. The Mississippi measurements were barge measurements, and to make comparison-with the maximum capacity rate achieved by the Beta, it is necessary to double the official test No. 1 (4,524 cubic yards) of the half Volga, and add 15 per cent, or 10,404 cubic yards, which is 30 per cent higher than any previous record. At the termination of the trials, it was officially considered that each half of the dredge would be conservatively rated as having an hourly capacity of 2,700 cubic meters, or about 3,500 cubic yards; a total for the whole plant of 7,000 cubic yards per hour. It was also demonstrated that working on a cross-over bar, with a current velocity of 3 to 4 knots per hour, the dredge could be maneuvered with facility with but one line (a head line), thus doing away with half a dozen lines heretofore necessary for holding and maneuvering. As the machine is selfpropelling and self-controlling in the current, the electric features have manifestly added enormously to the effective use of the dredge and have minimized all possible interference with commerce. GEO. F. LINCOLN,

ANTWERP, September 15, 1899.

Consul-General.

LEASE OF GOLD-BEARING LAND IN SIBERIA.

The chargé d'affaires at St. Petersburg, Mr. Peirce, sends, under date of September 20, 1899, printed copy of a circular issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Domains, in regard to leasing six tracts of land in Siberia, a translation of which reads:

PUBLIC AUCTION OF GOLD-BEARING LANDS OF OKHOTSK.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Domains (department of mines) informs the public that on the 15th-27th of February, 1900, at 2 o'clock precisely, there will take place the public auction of the gold-bearing lands situated on the northwest coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, under the following conditions:

I.

The gold-bearing lands of the northwest shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, situated in the basins of the tributary rivers of this sea, which are (1) the Aldama and the Oui, (2) the Lantar, (3) the Mouté, (4) the Némoui, (5) the Kyran, (6) the Yana, are to be leased for the extraction of gold and accompanying metals for a period of fifteen years by means of public auction. Each basin forms a separate section, except those of the Aldama and Oui, which will be taken together. The preference will be given to the contracting party who shall offer the highest royalty per pood of gold extracted.

II.

Declarations of participation will be received from all persons having, according to the laws in force, the right to engage in gold mining in Siberia, whether Russian subjects or foreign individuals, associations, companies, or joint-stock societies, on condition that they present (1) a guaranty of 100,000 rubles ($51,500) and (2) information regarding the capital to be used for the development of the gold lands in the basin in question. This information must be recognized as correct and the capital as sufficient by the Minister of Finance, in accord with the Minister of Agriculture. Companies and associations are required, besides, to present the statutes by which they are governed; joint-stock societies must be formed in compliance with the statutes governing the same. The requests for approbation of these statutes should be addressed to the Minister of Finance, who, in accord with the Minister of Agriculture, causes them to follow the prescribed course.

Remark I.-Information as to the amount of the capital in question, as well as copies of the statutes of associations, companies, or societies, must be presented to the Minister of Agriculture and Domains, at the latest, two months before the 15th-27th of February, 1900.

Remark II.-In the event of the grantee refusing to conclude the contract, the security of 100,000 rubles ($51,500) will be confiscated by the treasury.

III.

The auctions will be held at the office of the board of mines (Ministry of Agriculture and Domains). The bids presented, in writing, folded and sealed, must specify (a) the name of the bidder or of the firm, (b) the residence or office of the firm, (c) the name of the basin of which the bidder desires to obtain the grant, (d) the royalty offered for a pood of gold extracted. The envelope of the sealed paper containing the bid must have (a) the name of the person sending, (b) the name of the basin designated in the bid.

Remark.-A bid can refer to only one of the six sections designated above.

IV.

In order to insure the execution of the obligations of the grantee, 30,000 rubles ($15,150) of the guaranty deposited on the day of the auction will be retained and placed in the treasury to the account of the department of mines. Printed copies (in French, German, and English) of the conditions of the contract, as well as of the statutes which must serve as the basis for the constitution of joint-stock companies intended to work the gold mines of Okhotsk, and of the report (in Russian and French) made by the chief of the expedition of Okhotsk, M. Bogdanovitch, mining engineer, are sent from the office by post or delivered on demand, by the goldmining section of the department of mines (St. Petersburg Ministry of Agriculture and Domains) every day from 1 to 4 o'clock. For further information, address the same division.