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one of whom is an officer of the Navy and the other an officer of engineers of the Army. The Secretary of the Treasury is President ex qfficio. Comprehensive and detailed regulations and instructions for the guidance of the Board are laid down by the Treasury Department. The Board is divided into six Committees, the duties of each being carefully prescribed. These Committees are respectively styled— The Committee on Finance. The Committee on Engineering. The Committee on Floating Aids to Navigation. The Committee on Lighting. The Committee on Experiments. The Committee on Location. The Board meets once a week, when the secretaries lay before it such matters as require attention. The Engineering Secretary and the Naval Secretary are members of all the Committees, and necessarily exercise considerable influence in them, especially as members of the Board are constantly changed. The States are divided into fifteen lighthouse districts, in each of which there is a naval officer who acts as inspector, and an officer of engineers who acts as engineer. This plan of having two officers in charge of each district greatly increases the cost of administration, and must frequently hamper the service and impair its efficiency. Major Elliot, in his report, to which I have previously referred, condemns this arrangement, and says, " there is no doubt that the service can be conducted with more efficiency and economy than now, by a single officer in each district." The Lighthouse Inspectors have instructions to visit each light at least once a quarter, and oftener if possible, especially if they find that things are not being carried on satisfactorily; they are directed to make their visits at uncertain periods. Collectors of Customs in some cases act as Superintendents of Lights, in which capacity they have the immediate supervision of the light-keepers in their respective districts. It is provided by statute, " that Collectors whose compensation exceeds twenty-five hundred dollars shall receive no compensation as Superintendents of Lights or disbursing agents." The Board annually makes an estimate of the money required for carrying on the service, and for the erection of new lights. This estimate is submitted to Congress by the Secretary to the Treasury. Congress is usually very liberal in voting supplies for the lighthouse service, so that the department experiences no difficulty from want of funds. * * * * * Both principal and assistant light-keepers are appointed by the Board, but the principal is always consulted as to who his assistant is to be ; generally, they are both nominated together. * * * Keepers are not often shifted from station to station ; they provision themselves at all, except one or two of the rock stations, where supplies cannot easily be procured. At rock stations the establishment consists of four keepers, three of whom are always on duty, and one, by rotation, on shore. When a new light is erected, it is usually in compliance with petitions sent in to the department; these petitions are always referred to the district officers for their report. Separate reports from the naval and engineer officers are required in every case; if not well acquainted with the locality, those officers visit it before reporting. The site is always visited by an officer of the department before plans are prepared. The character and order of the light are settled by the Board at Washington. When it is decided to erect a lighthouse, the District Engineer prepares designs for the tower and keepers' dwellings ; these are submitted to the Lighthouse Board for approval. These designs are frequently altered by the Board. After approval, most elaborate plans and specifications are prepared in the District Engineer's office. The work of construction is, in all cases, submitted to public tender. Harhour Works. —The United States General Government has the power throughout the States to step in and stop or control all harbour works. When it undertakes any such works, they are carried out under the directions of the engineers of the War Department, as those officers are at present the only engineers in the service of the Government. I was informed that it had been for some time under consideration to establish a Department of Public Works, to which a staff of civil engineers would be attached. Lighthouse Depot, Staten Island, New York. —Colonel Woodruff, the Engineer officer in charge, was absent when I reached Staten Island; but his son, who is in the Engineer's office, was detailed by the principal officer present to show me over the establishment, and afford, me every information. This he very courteously did, and, in conducting me through the various stores and worshops, took great pains to explain every object likely to be of interest to me. I was first shown into a large room, in which a number of lenses of various kinds, and specimens of the different kinds of lamps, and other appliances used in the United States lighthouses, are exhibited. I found that lard oil was still used throughout the .States; the oil is supplied to the burner from a reservoir at a considerable elevation from the lamp : the iron damper tube over the chimney passes through this reservoir, whereby the heat from the flame keeps the oil liquid during the cold weather in winter. The flow of the oil is governed by a very ingenious device : a light hollow float is fitted in a glass cylinder in a down tube from the reservoir; this float falls as the oil is consumed, and opens an aperture above, by which a fresh supply is admitted, then the float rises and closes a valve fitted level with the burner; the supply of oil to the lamp is then simply regulated without any machinery. The whole apparatus has the advantage of being so excessively simple that any one can take charge of a lamp without fear of damaging it. This plau was devised by Mr. Funck, the foreman of the lighthouse workshop, and is in use in all the large lighthouses in the Slates. At the time of my visit, they were making experiments with kerosene, using for the purpose a Douglas burner, which had been presented by the Trinity Board of London; these experiments, however, had not been attended with much success, mainly owing no doubt to the fact that a burner only had been supplied, and not a complete lamp, so that, with the oil cistern which had been devised by the officer who had charge of the experiments, a fair trial had not been made. I was informed that they had not hitherto made any great efforts to perfect appliances for burning mineral oil, because lard oil had been cheap ; but now that that illuminant had advanced in price considerably, they were anxious to use kerosene. After going through the workshops and stores, I was taken into the engineer branch of the department, and was there shown plans and working drawings of the lighthouses in the New York, or third district. Many of these structures are most elaborate in design,