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utralized by careful surveys as to free it comparatively from dangers, and an exceptional state of affairs imperilling the life of the Government and emasculating its exchequer—I proceed to notice what has been done, and what it is proposed to do, for the convenience of seafaring men, and to facilitate the movements of ships on the harbors.
In the rivers and in Newchwang entering this port, the only danger is the Bar at the mouth of the river, a danger aggravated, firstly by the storms which often keep pilots on shore, and secondly, by the want of a proper survey.
The survey, thanks to Captain Townsend of the U. S. Sloop Wachusetts has now been made, and the question of lights has been seriously considered. The river is frozen every year, for four or five months, and although shipmasters would like to have a lightship constantly at the Bar, its expensiveness, the ice would expose it to, and the dangers and inconveniences it would be subject to, will probably prove a sufficiently strong objection to its adoption, and a permanent light beacon, to be erected on the inner end of the spit, will perhaps be found more feasible, if not fully as useful. Buoys have been placed on the bar, and a lightship (if procurable) will be anchored near it during the trading season of 1867. The necessary measures will be at once taken for the selection of a site and the erection...