REPORT OF BOARD OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, PANAMA CANAL.


 The minutes of the meeting of September 15 were read and adopted.
 The minutes of the meeting of September 16 were then read and adopted.
 The Chairman, for the Sea-Level Canal Committee, reported progress, stating that the preliminary steps were being taken by the drafting force in this building in line with the requirements of the resolution. The force at work on the preparation of a sea-level canal plan would be rapidly increased, in order to make better progress.
 He further stated, with reference to the requirement that the Commission be requested to give instructions for further borings and surveys at the site of Gatun dam, that on Saturday afternoon the Commission sent to the chief engineer on the Isthmus a telegram directing that he install boring apparatus at once and make certain surveys. This telegram was sufficient to guide him in the work until detailed instructions could reach him by mail on the steamer leaving New York on the 23d. The members of the Board would arrive there two or three days after the letter.
 The Chairman then asked Mr. Stearns if he had anything to say about this matter.
 Mr. STEARNS. I was called here last Saturday in consultation about the telegram to Panama, and the Chairman of the Board suggested that there might be a better site than that submitted the other day. The site suggested by the Chairman seemed to offer some advantages, and I think that some project can be arranged which will be more advantageous than the one I proposed. A plan is being prepared to indicate where the borings should be taken.
 The question of the subject for discussion at the next session was then taken up.
 The subject of the Gamboa dam was proposed by Mr. Hunter, who suggested first a study of the most desirable site, and, second, the manner of constructing the dam. He considered it a question of vital importance, and one that would not be much assisted by an examination of the site.
 The Chairman stated for the information of the Board that he had been told by General Hains, one of the members of the Commission, that he was having prepared, and had about completed, a plan of a dam at Gamboa, with estimates of amounts of materials according to the usual formula for the construction of dams.
 It was decided that the subject of dams should be the subject for the next meeting.
 The Chairman then read a letter from Joshua A. Hatfield, president of the American Bridge Company, of New York, extending an invitation to the Board of Consulting Engineers and the Isthmian Canal Commission to inspect the large working models which have been installed at Bound Brook, N. J., of the Dutton pneumatic lock and dam regulation device.
 No action was taken upon this invitation.
 The meeting thereupon adjourned until Friday morning, September 22,1905, at 10 o'clock a. m.
 JOHN C. OAKES,
 Captain, Generd Staf, Secretary.


 EIGHTH MEETING.
 WASHINGTON, D. C., September 23, 1905.
 The meeting was called to order at 10 a. m. by the Chairman.
 Present: All the members of the Board.
 The minutes of the preceding meeting were read, corrected, and adopted.
 The Chairman stated, on behalf of the committee that was requested to collect data respecting the depths of great harbors of the world, sizes of steamships engaged in commerce and of naval vessels, that he would report progress as follows:
 A communication had been sent to the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, in this city, in substance as follows:
 The Board of Consulting Engineers for the Panama Canal is desirous of having aUthentic official information as to the depth available for navigation in the 50 principal commercial and naval harbors of the world. These data will be best expressed by the depth of the bar or entrance at mean low water, and at high water at lowest neap tide, thus enabling a mariner to know on what he can count on arrival. The latest information will be appreciated.


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