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Appendix No. 9.

UNITED STATES.

568

been done since 1876, and the importance of an efficient protection of the city of San Francisco, the navy yard on Mare Island, and Benicia Arsenal, warrants an early grant. Fort at Lime Point. Main fort not commenced; Gravelly Beach Battery, commenced 1870; Lime Point Ridge Battery, 1871; Point Cavallo Battery, 1872; constitute defences proposed for northern shore of Golden Gate. In good condition, but no recent changes in platforms or armament.

Fort on Alcantraz Island. Alcantraz Island lies in the harbour, 2 miles inside the entrance, in a very advantageous position for the defence of the channels on every side of it. Work for remodelling the defences for earthen batteries for heavy guns commenced, and carried on for a few years; suspended for want of funds.

Second line of defence --

Batteries at Point San José.

Temporary batteries of civil war; proposed modifications for new earthen batteries for

heaviest modern guns and mortars; only prepared.

Inner line of defence:-

Batteries on Angel Island, practically unserviceable.

Proposed barbette earthen batteries for heaviest guns, to bear on channels leading to

Mare Island and Benicia Arsenal; planned only.

Compared with the defences of some of the United States' ports, those of San Francisco are not absolutely despicable, although there are not the most modern guns; the outer forts are kept in fair repair, and as the town is beyond the reach of bombardment, the forts must be passed before pressure can be put upon the town. But, as has been before stated, it is considered the harbour would fall to a first-class attack of iron-clads and heavy guns.

Oregon State and Washington Territory.

The expenditure on harbours so far, has been 900,000 dollars, chiefly on Coos Bay and the mouth and channel of the Columbia River, leading to the rising port of Portland, the future terminus of one of the overland railways.

ment.

The Columbia bar is a bad and uncertain one, and large expenditures are proposed for its improve-

In the 1870 Census Oregon had: sailors, 218; fishermen, 90; lumbermen, 232; shipwrights, 65. Old census: Oregon and Washington, 110,000; new, 250,000. Organized militia, 641; unorganized, 14,000.

Actual forts :-

Defences of Columbia consist of Fort Stevens, an inclosed earthwork at Point Adams, on the south side, commanding entrance to river by south channel, which, after passing northern end of Clatsop Spit, skirts the eastern shore of Point Adams, on the approach to Astoria; and the earthen batteries at fort Canby, commanding the entrance by the north channel, which passes in close to the headland. Built during civil war in antici- pation of complications with foreign Powers. Rapidly decaying.

In the above account no attempt has been made to give the armament of the forts in detail; to have done so would have greatly extended the account of them without any corresponding advantage. From what has been said under the head of ordnance, the inferior character of the guns as a whole may be gathered, and, from the above account, the general condition of the forts; it may be assumed that, in all those mentioned as in fair repair, and especially in the many-tiered casemated works there are large numbers of old type guns, but comparatively few rifled, even of the very moderate strength as yet in possession of the States, and that there are a certain number of heavy mortars also mounted.

But the proposals to abandon masonry as far as possible, replacing the old casemates by earthen barbette batteries, armed with the heaviest guns, and well traversed, or to protect the old with earth- works and enlarge the casemates, have been most imperfectly carried out. In no case has execution got as far as the armament, in but few cases as far as the completed platforms or casemates. In most, the work has only got as far as the outline of the earthwork without the magazines, and in many has stopped short at the plans. The newest propositions to armour-plate the forts or use iron turrets are as yet entirely in the domain of plans uncommenced.

The actual condition of affairs is therefore this: no position on the United States coast can be con- sidered absolutely impregnable, not even New York and San Francisco, and if Boston is so, it is greatly due to the intricacy of its approaches. Even the well-armed places, although their numerous inferior guns might render immediate landing or close attack of the second-class ships unadvisable, can be battered down by superior guns from a distance, while the first-class iron-clads (torpedoes having been removed step by step, and the few efficient mortar batteries silenced) could go quite close in to finish them. But in very many instances a position could be taken up with impunity, even before the forts were silenced, which would place the port and the private dwellings of the militia occupying the forts at the mercy of the fleet, and bring about the surrender of all the defences by negotiation.

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Many most important positions are defended only in name, and any number of valuable towns with excellent harbours, are left absolutely defenceless.

Arsenals and Manufacturing Establishments.

There are certain places of military and naval value, some in, some beyond, the dockyards, which are collected in the annexed list, as to have turned aside at each place to mention them would have* interrupted the main description of the dockyards, harbours, and their defences.

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