cylinder; and the ice-buoy is much like a spar - buoy, of great length, slight thickness, and of largest diameter near its middle. Each shape is classified by size, and diversified by color and number. They were once made of wooden staves, like barrels, but their rapid destruction by the Teredo navalis caused the substitution of boiler-iron. The cost of these buoys varies with the price of iron and cost of labor. The board's last contract for buoys, with all their attachments, except mooring-chains, was made at the following rates:

For first-class can-buoys, six feet across, and nine feet six inches high..

For second-class can-buoys, four feet four inches across, and seven feet high..

For third-class can-buoys, three feet two inches across, and four feet ten inches high..

I bo

MUSHROOM ANCHORS.

IRON SINKER.

(For mooring Buoys.)

STONE SINKER.

$262

143

96

Congress prescribed by act of September 28, 1850, that red buoys, with even numbers, be placed on the right-hand side, and black buoys, with odd numbers, on the left-hand side of channels approached from seaward; that buoys placed on wrecks or other obstructions, having a channel on each side, be painted with red and black horizontal stripes; that those buoys placed in mid-channel, and which indicate that they must be passed close-to to avoid danger, be painted with white and black perpendicular stripes; and finally, that perches, with balls, cages, etc., when placed on buoys, will indicate a turning-point, the color and number of the buoy showing the side on which they are to be passed.

Buoys are exposed to many dangers, not the least of which is that of being run down and ripped open by passing steamers. As the iron buoys are made with compartments, they are rarely sunk, but their line of flotation is often lowered, and their usefulness accordingly decreased. Spar-buoys frequently lose a portion of their length, which is cut off by strokes of colliding propeller-blades. Despite state and national statutes forbidding it, vessels will sometimes make fast to buoys, thus gradually dragging them off their bearings. A buoy has sometimes been set adrift, that a reward may be obtained for its recovery; but this is not a profitable operation, as the reward paid is varied with the circumstances of each case.

The buoys' worst enemy, however, is ice, when moving in mass, and with a tide or current. A well-made, well-moored buoy, at the mouth of a narrow river, can create an icegorge; but usually, when the ice moves in force, the buoys net have their mooring-loops torn out, their mooring-chains broken, or their

mooring-anchor weighed; and in each case the buoy is carried out to sea, when the buoy-tenders give chase, and, if successful in its capture, return it to position. The sea-going qualities of the large iron buoys are shown by their volunteer voyages. One is now anchored off the coast of Ireland, where it was picked up, about six weeks after it had been wrenched from its place in New York Harbor, and turned over to the Irish lighthouse establishment, by which it was reported to the United States Lighthouse board, when it was presented to the Irish board, who simply added to its former marks their own, and moored it near the point where it came ashore, in commemoration of its peculiar voyage.

The importance of keeping New York Harbor and Bay well marked has moved the board to keep its iron buoys in position, notwithstanding their danger during the winter, but with a spar-buoy beside each iron buoy, as the ice that carries away the one passes over the other, and allows it to resume its position, and indicate to passing vessels where the iron buoy should be, and also to show the buoy-tenders exactly where it is to be replaced. New York Harbor was twice swept clean of iron buoys during the winter of 1880-'81, and, though some of them have been recovered, the board has been put to large expense to replace those which were lost. Still, it recognizes the fact that the loss of one steamer might cause a destruction of property many times greater than the cost of the buoys, to say nothing of the loss of life that the absence of buoys might occasion. The ice-buoy invented by Mr. J. Parsons Smith, clerk to the Lighthouse Inspector at Philadelphia, is made of boiler-iron, and is divided into compartments, so that any one may be pierced without sinking the buoy. That of the first class costs $300, is fifty feet long, and stands twenty-two feet out of water. That of the second class costs $250, is forty feet long, and stands seventeen feet out of water. with wooden spar-buoys, the ice passes over them without carrying them away; but, unlike the wooden buoys, they break the propellerblades which strike them instead of being broken, and thus, defending themselves, last many times longer than spar-buoys, and, though costing more at first, are more economical in the end.

As

The board has a fleet of twenty-three steamers and three schooners, ranging from fifty to five hundred and fifty tons burden. It is the business of some of these steamers to attend to the buoyage of the coast, replacing the buoys which have gone adrift, exchanging every buoy for a fresh one once a year, and placing new buoys. They are also used to supply the lighthouses with provisions, fuel, and minor supplies, and on them the inspectors visit the light-stations to make their regular quarterly inspections and to pay the keepers. Certain of the tenders are used for construction purposes, freighting building material to light

house sites, and conveying building and repairing parties from station to station. The Fern, the largest of all, is used as a supply steamer, and yearly visits the light-stations on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Nineteen of these vessels are employed on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, three on the lakes, two on the western rivers, and two on the Pacific coast. Thirteen of these vessels have been built for lighthouse purposes since 1870, and are in tolerable condition. Ten of the steamers and two of the schooners are poorly adapted for the service, quite old, and are only kept on duty until they can be replaced by others. The board has just built two iron side-wheel steamers, which cost about $40,000 each, when finished and equipped, and which are one hundred and forty-six feet three inches long, twenty-three feet eight inches beam, nine feet six inches hold, and of about 300 tons burden. Of those now in use, one is under 100 tons burden, seven are between 100 and 200, seven between

200 and 300, six between 300 and 400, one between 400 and 500, and one between 500 and 600.

The steam-tender Manzanita, which is represented in the cut, was built in Baltimore in 1878-'79, and was sent through the Straits of Magellan to the Pacific coast, where, by reason of her size and power, she is used for inspection, supply, and construction purposes. Her length is one hundred and fifty-two feet, beam twenty-six feet, and hold nearly twelve feet. She is a screw steamer, schooner-rigged, built of wood, and cost, when equipped, about $60,000. She has a derrick attached to her foremast, operated by a hoisting-engine, which takes its steam from her boiler. She is manned by a captain, mate, two engineers, and twenty-one others. The Manzanita may be considered as typical of the tenders of the future, rather than of the past or present, as she is the best in the service. The first light-keeper, of whose regular ap

pointment there is authentic information, was George Worthylake, husbandman, aged fortythree years, who was made keeper of the lighthouse on Little Brewster Island, Boston Harbor, in 1716, at fifty pounds per year, by the order of the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay; and it seems that the keepers of the other seven lighthouses of colonial times were appointed in like manner.

When the General Government had assumed charge of the lighthouse establishment, the appointment of keepers was made by the President, and quite a number of the commissions bear the signature of George Washington, who took great interest in lighthouse affairs. One of the first official acts Washington, as President, performed, was to write to the keeper of Sandy Hook light, directing him to keep it

burning until Congress had opportunity to provide for its continuance. Jefferson also took personal interest in lighthouse affairs, and in its personnel. There are hanging in the office of the Lighthouse Board, at Washington, several letters from Washington and Jefferson on lighthouse matters. Among them is a letter on which is the following endorsement:

"The above is accompanied by two other letters dated respectively May 30, and June 1, 1808, which strongly recommend Jared Hand's appointment [as keeper of Montauk Point Light] to succeed his father, which were duly submitted to the President for his approval or rejection." On the letter the following endorsement appears:

I have constantly refused to give in to this method of making offices hereditary. Whenever this one be

comes actually vacant, the claims of Jared Hand may be considered with those of other competitors. THOMAS JEFFERSON.

As their number increased, the nominations of keepers were made by collectors of customs who were the local superintendents of lights; but the appointments were made by the Secretary of the Treasury. That usage crystallized into law, and still obtains; but the nomination of the collector is forwarded to the Lighthouse Board, where it receives an endorsement which procures for it favorable or adverse action. The appointment, however, is but temporary, and continues only until the candidate has been examined, after which, if he passes, a full appointment is given him; otherwise he is dropped from the service.

The appointment of light-keepers is restricted to persons between the ages of eighteen and fifty, who can read, write, and keep accounts, are able to do the requisite manual labor, to pull and sail a boat, and have enough mechanical ability to make the necessary minor repairs about the premises and keep them painted, whitewashed, and in order.

Although but one grade of keeper is recognized by law, usage has divided keepers into several, with different pay as well as different duties, and with promotion running through the various grades. At one lighthouse there may be but one keeper; at another, a principal keeper and an assistant; and there is a station where there is a principal keeper with four assistants, the fourth having the lowest grade and the lowest pay, and the others having been appointed at that grade, and promoted as merit was shown and vacancies occurred; or they may have been transferred and promoted from another station. Although persons are appointed to the service and assigned to a given station, they are frequently transferred from one station to another, as the interests of the service may demand, and, while it is usual to consult a keeper's wishes in his assignment, there is nothing in the regulations to prevent the transfer of a man appointed in Maine to a station in Georgia; and occasionally keepers are with their own consent transferred from one district to another at a great distance. Young men who have seen some sea-service are preferred as assistants at the larger stations; and at stations requiring but one keeper, retired sea-captains or mates who have families are frequently selected. At those stations where there are fog-signals, it is customary, however, to have one assistant who is able to operate its machinery and keep it in repair; and he is usually one who is something of a machinist. Such persons are graded and paid at a higher rate on their original entry into the service than others.

While there are numerous light-stations located on submarine sites, the greater number of lights have connected with them a little land which the keepers are encouraged to cultivate. Hence small farms or gardens are often

connected with stations which are cultivated by the keepers' families.

Keepers are forbidden to engage in any business which can interfere with their presence at their stations, or with the proper and timely performance of their lighthouse duties; but it is no unusual thing to find a keeper working at his station as a shoemaker, tailor, or in some similar capacity, and there are light-keepers who fill neighboring pulpits, who hold commissions as justices of the peace, and there are still others who do duty as school-teachers, without neglecting their lighthouses. As the dwellings of the light-keepers are often tastefully planned, well built, and located on picturesque sites, people in search of summer quarters have so besought keepers for accommodation that the board has been compelled to prohibit them from taking boarders under any circumstances.

The board has done much to make keepers comfortable. They are furnished with quarters for themselves, and in certain cases for their families, and, when so far distant from market as to make its carriage equal or exceed its cost, with fuel and rations; suitable boats are furnished stations inaccessible by land; and at those stations on shore, distant from markets, barns are built for their cattle and horses. Something also has been done for the intellectual needs of the keepers and their families by supplying them with libraries. These are arranged in cases so constructed that they make rather a neat appearance when set upright on a table, and they only need be closed and locked to be ready for transportation. They contain on an average about fifty volumes each, of a proper admixture of history, science, poetry, and romance, together with a Bible and a prayer-book. One of these libraries is left at a station for some three months, when it is exchanged, and the first is passed on to another station. This is usually done when the inspector makes his quarterly inspection; so each of the stations to which libraries are furnished sees some two hundred different books each year. There are now nearly three hundred of these libraries in circulation through this establishment, and more are being prepared. In their distribution preference is given to those stations most distant from towns or villages.

The board does not, as yet, uniform its employees, or pension those who become maimed or worn out in its service. Keepers are under the law paid an average sum of $600 a year; but the rates range in individual cases from $100 to $1,000 a year. In March, 1881, Congress appropriated $585,000 for the payment of its 1,015 keepers.

The discipline of the service is somewhat rigid and severe, and has been from the beginning. On December 31, 1806, Mr. Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, placed the following endorsement on a letter:

The part which relates to the conduct of the keeper of Cape Henry lighthouse is submitted to the President for his decision.

Now the class of men from whom keepers are selected is so good that the punishment of dismissal is infrequently inflicted. But it follows swiftly in two cases. A keeper found intoxicated is not only summarily dismissed the service, but he is instantly ejected from the station; and a keeper who allows his light to go out is dismissed without regard to his excuse or his previous good conduct. The views of the board on this subject appear in the following extract from one of its letters:

The board considers it the duty of every light-keeper to stand by his light as long as the lighthouse stands; and that for him to desert it when in danger is as cowardly as for a soldier to leave his guns on the advance of an enemy.

His failure to keep his light burning, especially in time of danger, may cause the wreck of vessels looking for it, and result in the loss of much property and many lives.

Keepers are trained to consider the care of the light and the lighthouse property their paramount duty, beyond any personal consideration; and the esprit de corps is such that instances have happened where the keepers on duty have, as in the case of the first light on Minot's Ledge, gone down with their lighthouse and died at their post; others where the keeper has saved his lens, letting his family shift for themselves; and there are repeated instances where the keeper has saved his lighthouse property and lost his own. A recent instance of heroism is that of the keepers of Sharp's Island lighthouse, in Chesapeake Bay. It was lifted from its foundation, thrown over, and carried away by ice early in February, 1881. The keeper and his assistant clung to the fallen house, and, although one of their boats remained uninjured, they were adrift in the bay sixteen and a half hours without fire or food, always in imminent danger, as the heavy floating ice often piled up against and threatened to swamp the house. It grounded, however, on an island shortly after midnight, at high tide, and was full of water. Being satisfied that it would not float off again, the two keepers went ashore in their boat, and when the tide had fallen, they returned, saved and took to the shore the lens, its pedestal, the oil, the library, much damaged by water, and even the empty oil-cans, and then reported the facts through their inspector to the board. Meantime the keepers of another lighthouse, fearing the ice, had deserted their post, and gone on shore. The fact that no vessels could have needed their light while the ice was unbroken, and that they returned to their post when the danger had passed, did not avail them. So soon as the fact of their desertion was determined, they were dismissed the service, and

the two keepers who had spent those terrible hours afloat in Sharp's Island lighthouse, and then had saved its apparatus, were highly complimented by a letter direct from the board itself, and then were appointed to the deserters' places. Light-keepers have been conspicuously successful in their exertions to save endangered life. It is recorded of Mrs. Ida LewisWilson, the keeper of Lime Rock lighthouse, in the harbor of Newport, Rhode Island, that she has saved the lives of thirteen different persons, in each instance at the risk of her own. Medals and other testimonials to her heroism have been conferred on her by individuals, by humane societies, and by State authorities. The latest recognition of her services has been made by the General Government, which, in May, 1881, conferred on her the first-class gold medal awarded by Congress to those who save life at the imminent risk of their own.

The commerce of the Western rivers was mainly restricted to motion by daylight, because of the difficulty in keeping steamboats in the tortuous channels, and in avoiding the obstructions with which the channels abound. There were in 1873-'4, on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers, 1,100 steamboats, of 258,000 tons, 832 licensed barges, of 179,000 tons, and coal barges and other craft of 750000 tons, making a total of about 1,200,000 tons. The total value of the cargoes carried by them was estimated at $400,000,000 per year. The coal sent to market yearly, by the Ohio River alone, amounted to 4,000,000 of tons. Hence, when those interested in river commerce took vigorous measures, they had little difficulty in procuring Congressional action. In 1874, an appropriation of $50,000 was made for a survey of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers, and to establish on them temporary lights and buoys. The survey was made, a favorable report followed, and two lighthouse districts were duly established, one, the fourteenth, extending from Pittsburgh to Cairo, and the other, the fifteenth, comprising the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. An inspector and an engineer were appointed for each district; a steamer hastily fitted for the work was furnished to each inspector, and they proceeded to light up the rivers.

The navigation of these waters was of the most intricate character. The crossings were numerous; and, at some, technically called "blind crossings," where the banks show no diversity of outline, and where the channel is narrow, pilots were frequently delayed, and could not always avoid disaster. At many points, previous to the establishment of the lights, passage was never attempted on a dark night, but by means of the lights, the passages are made practicable at all times. The hidden obstructions are numberless, and in many places barely leave room for the passage of large steamers. There are many consecutive miles on these rivers where the wrecks average more than one

A LIGHT ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

suspended from an arm projecting from a post, at an elevation of from eight to ten feet from the ground. They are of most service during low water, though they afford important aid at other times. At points where the channel is made very narrow by permanent obstructions, and the passage dangerous, buoys have been placed as day marks, to which floating lights are attached at night. From the testimonials received from officers and managers of different steamboat lines, boards of trade, and others interested in the navigation of those waters, these lights and buoys appear to be a great benefit to river commerce.

In 1875, $100,000 were appropriated to maintain the lights on the Western rivers; $150,000 in 1876 $140,000 in 1877, the same in 1878, but $130,000 in 1879, $140,000 again in 1880, and $150,000 were appropriated in 1881. There were on June 30, 1880, on the Ohio, Mississipppi, and Missouri Rivers, eight hundred and nineteen of these lights, each having an average cost for its maintenance of $156.28 per year, and all of them costing in the aggregate $128,000 for that year. The board by the act of

March 3, 1881, was also required to light the mouth of the Red River.

The lighthouse inspector is an officer of the army or navy, the detail being changed at proper times. It is now considered that the time an officer spends on lighthouse duty aids. to make up his education and to contribute to his efficiency. Hence this duty is sought in times of peace by ambitious young officers of judgment, tact, and habits of study, who can do the lighthouse establishment good service. The fourteen inspectors now on duty are all officers of the navy; one is a rear-admiral, one a captain, ten are commanders, and two are lieutenant-commanders. They serve without other than their shore-duty pay. It is the duty of each inspector to attend, under the directions of the board, to supplying the lights of his respective district; to maintain its buoyage; to keep up the discipline of the light-keepers; to inspect the light-stations, light-ships, and light-tenders, and all the lighthouse people and property in his district each quarter; to attend to the examination, promotion, and transfer of the keepers, to answer the calls made on him by the board, for special information as to the needs of commerce at specified points; to make the numerous reports to the board, on blanks provided for that purpose; to act as purchasing and disbursing officer; and he has recently been ordered to pay each keeper his salary each quarter. Commander C. J. McDougal, U. S. N., the Inspector of the Twelfth Lighthouse District, was drowned on March 28, 1881, when attempting to reach Cape Mendocino, light-station, California, from the lighthouse steam-tender. The surf-boat was upset, and the inspector, though an expert swimmer, together with three other persons, was lost. He is supposed to have been carried down by the weight of the coin on his person that he was taking on shore, to use in paying to the light-keepers their quarterly salary.

There is no specified time for which an officer of the corps of engineers shall serve as a lighthouse engineer, as he often has at the same time charge of fortification or harbor engineering works. His lighthouse duties are to prepare plans and specifications for lighthouse structures, and submit them to the board; to purchase the material, arrange for the labor, and take charge of their erection or repair; to set up and keep in repair the illuminating apparatus of each light-station in his district, and to purchase and care for the real estate, lighthouse sites, etc., of the establishment in his district. He reports to the board, when requested, as to the necessity and cost of establishing new aids to navigation. The coasts of the country show with what success the engineers have grappled with the problems of lighthouse engineering, not only on land but on subaqueous foundations.

Enough has been said of the routine duties of the board. But two points should be here mentioned. It is not only its duty to build