on the southeast coast of Negros, and on the east and southeast coast of Mindanao; the steamer Fathomer was engaged in work in the area between Tablas, Panay, Masbate, and between Romblon and Masbate Islands; also between Panay and Mindoro and the Calimanes and Palawan Islands; the steamer Romblon made surveys in the area bounded by the islands of Luzon, Burias, Masbate, Sibuyan, and Tablas; the steamer Marinduque was employed in Basilan Strait, Iligan Bay, and Ragay Gulf; the steamer Research surveyed in the area bounded by Samar, Leyte, Biliran, and Masbate Islands. One party was engaged in work of triangulation on the island of Mindanao and another in magnetic observations on the island of Luzen.

A permanent magnetic observatory is maintained by the Coast and Geodetic Survey at Vieques, P. R. No other work was done during the year on this island, the surveys of which are complete.

The survey of the island of Maui, Hawaiian Islands, has been nearly completed.

A permanent magnetic observatory is maintained by the Coast and Geodetic Survey at Honolulu.

Through the courtesy of the surveyor general of Hawaii, tidal observations made by the territorial government are furnished to the Coast and Geodetic office.

Two parties were engaged in surveys of the approaches to the Panama Canal on the Pacific side; one party on the steamer Patterson and the cther a wire-drag party. A careful hydrographic survey was made and all shoal areas were examined in detail with the wire drag.

INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES.

United States and Canada boundary.-In the survey of the boundary line between the United States and Canada the following progress was made:

The party employed on the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick continued work in the region between Woodland and Vanceboro; and from the lower end of Grand Lake to the mouth of Monument Stream. Some triangulation was also done in North Lake. In the meanwhile a Canadian party was at work on Mud Lake and Chiputneticook Lake.

On the same boundary a second party completed the survey in the valley of the St. Francis River, about 18 miles of the boundary, not including work by the Canadian party in the field at the same time, and made about 4 miles of line measurement to the southward and westward of Lake Pohenegamook.

In the section of the boundary between Pigeon River and Lake of the Woods, separating the State of Minnesota from the Province of Ontario, surveys were completed from Pine Lake to Saganaga Lake, a distance of approximately 30 miles.

A Canadian party, in cooperation with an American surveyor, operating on the boundary between North Dakota and Manitoba and Minnesota and Ontario, made about 120 miles of progress, from monument No. 170 on Turtle Mountain to monument No. 70 west of and near Red River, and from the North West Angle Inlet, Lake of the Woods, to below the mouth of the inlet, a distance of about 3 miles.

One party engaged in triangulation and monument setting of the boundary line between Manitoba and Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota began work about 40 miles east of the east branch of Poplar River and closed operations in the neighborhood of Short Creek, a distance of approximately 100 miles; also from the vicinity of Emerson, Manitoba, west of the Red River, eastward to monument No. 47, a distance of about 25 miles. Another party engaged in the topography and vista cutting of the same section of the boundary line completed the work from the east fork of Poplar River to monument No. 29, a distance of about 124 miles, and from the vicinity of Emerson, Manitoba, to monument No. 31, a distance of 34 miles.

Alaska boundary.-A Canadian party, in cooperation with an American surveyor, engaged in the surveying and marking of the boundary line in Portland Canal, separating Alaska from British Columbia, placed in position 22 reference monuments, the sites of which were determined by triangulation. A topographic survey of the region adjacent was begun.

Two parties have been at work on the Alaska boundary in the Mount St. Elias and Mount Natazhat region, one engaged in triangulation and the other in topography.

On the northern part of the one hundred and forty-first meridian boundary between Alaska and the Yukon Territory about 164 miles of the boundary were surveyed and monumented. The line projection was carried from station "P" of the boundary to station "Y," on the last high ridge overlooking the Arctic Ocean.

CHART PRODUCTION.

During the year satisfactory progress has been made in the preparation of the new series of charts on the mercator projection, oriented with the meridian and having a single depth unit, for the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and in the correction of existing charts.

An increased number of charts has been published by lithography, and the complete substitution of metal lithographic plates for stone has increased the rapidity of production.

The total issue of charts was 144,425, an increase of 18,000 over that for the previous year. A new edition of the Catalogue of Charts is in press.

ASSISTANCE RENDERED IN SAVING LIFE AND PROPERTY.

On June 17, 1911, the Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer Explorer extinguished a fire in the coal bunkers of the U. S. Army transport Thomas, then undergoing repairs in Oakland Creek, Cal.

On June 9, 1911, a boat from the steamer Explorer rescued 26 students from a burning launch in Seattle Harbor, Wash.

In October, 1911, the steamer Bache pulled a stranded schooner off a shoal in the Patuxent River.

On June 14, 1912, the steamer Yukon, at work on the coast of Alaska, received reports that as the result of the eruption of Katmai volcano, the people on Kodiak Island were in distress. The Yukon immediately proceeded to Kodiak and offered to assist the revenue cutter Manning in any duty that would aid the inhabitants. The conditions at Kodiak had been much exaggerated, and although there had been a fall of ashes, about 18 inches deep, at Kodiak the people were not in serious danger. At the request of the commander of the Manning, the Yukon transported mail and provisions to the relief station at Afognak.

BUREAU OF NAVIGATION.

TONNAGE OF THE MERCHANT MARINE.

On June 30, 1912, the total documented merchant shipping of the United States comprised 26,528 vessels of 7,714,183 gross tons, an increase of 75,393 tons during the year. The recent growth of our shipping has been relatively slow, due partly to causes working here and abroad and partly to diminished construction on the Great Lakes, but the construction in the past four years of steel steamers, aggregating 534,000 gross tons, has increased the efficiency of our merchant fleet much beyond the increase indicated by tonnage figures. During the past fiscal year our shipyards built 1,505 vessels of 232,669 gross tons. The period of depression in the industry both here and abroad, mentioned in two previous reports, is apparently at an end, and the outlook for the current year is encouraging. The steel tonnage building or under contract on July 1, 1912, was 80,000 tons greater than similar tonnage on July 1, 1911, indicating a return to the normal annual output. The product of British and German yards for 1913 probably will be the largest on record.

The building of 20 oil-tank steamers is an especially encouraging feature of our current construction. Great Britain's coal mines are one of the sources of her maritime supremacy, but increasing use of oil as fuel, shown both by the construction of tank steamers and by the conversion of steamers from the use of coal to oil, will enable the United States with its great oil fields in some measure to offset that advantage. To handle coal requires about twice as many men as it does to supply oil as fuel on shipboard, and the change is calculated to reduce the difference in wages which has been a handicap on American competitive shipping since steam so largely supplanted sail.

FREE SHIPS.

The policy to admit foreign-built ships to American registry to engage in the foreign trade, and to admit free of duty all materials for American ships and shipbuilding, which was recommended in this report last year, was adopted by Congress in the Panama Canal act of August 24, 1912. Time enough has not elapsed to judge the effect of these measures. The free-registry section, with other provisions of law, requires with the change of flag a change in the officers of the

ship, and enlarges the field of employment for American deck officers and engineers. Such changes a prudent shipowner will make gradually, prompted by regard for faithful alien officers long employed and by caution in the selection of Americans to fill their places. Immediate change of flag on a considerable scale, accordingly, is not anticipated. The statute also restricts the registry privilege to ships not over five years old, so that additions to our fleet from foreign sources will not be represented by old ships at the bottom of the lists of foreign shipowners, for which purchasers are sought, but in the main by new ships, built according to new and improved designs. The new law will no doubt work slowly for this reason, but upon the principle of selection better results may be expected in the end.

The passage of a free-ship bill for foreign trade was not opposed at the last session, which indicates that the contention heretofore advanced that such a measure would be an entering wedge to break down the coasting-trade reservation has been abandoned.

The admission of foreign-built ships to the coastwise trade would be a reversal of our policy, which has been supported from the beginning of our Government by all parties as essential to the national defense. Our merchant ships and shipyards are as essential to the nation as our battleships, and a successful shipbuilding industry is as necessary to our independence now as it was in the early years of the Republic. Our shipyards should be maintained in great part by the orders of our citizens for merchant steamships, and the construction of large ocean steamers to be employed between our ports on both oceans should secure to the United States a substantial increase in our shipbuilding industry.

SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA.

In round numbers 2,000,000 persons annually now cross the ocean on their way to or from the United States. By far the greater part of these are American travelers or those seeking new homes and citizenship in this country. Our interest in the safety of ocean passenger travel, accordingly, is keener and more general than that of any other country in the world, not excluding Great Britain and Germany, which provide the greater number of ocean passenger steamers. The profound feeling aroused throughout the United States by the loss of the British steamship Titanic on April 15 did not find expression in radical legislation difficult or impossible to administer, but readily concurred in the sentiment of other nations. in favor of an international conference for the consideration of means to prevent the recurrence of such disasters. The date of the conference has not been definitely fixed, but Congress has made ample provision for adequate American representation whenever the conference may be summoned. At the beginning of the last session,