To enable the Light-house Board to procure the necessary machinery and test practically the plan for distinguishing lights submitted by Charles Babbage, esq., and which was communicated to Congress at its last session, $5,000. Table D. The following are the objects considered by the Light-house Board of greatest importance, next to those already provided, embraced in the general programme of the board under its temporary organization, and which are placed in geographical order, commencing at the northeastern boundary of the United States: Maine.-1. To elevate, improve, and fit with first-order illuminating apparatus the light-house at Seguin, one of the most important positions on the eastern coast, $15,000. Massachusetts.-2. To elevate, improve, and fit with first-order illuminating apparatus the light-house at Truro highlands, Cape Cod being an important seacoast position to mark the approaches to Boston harbor, $15,000. 3. To refit and improve Gay Head light, $13,000. New York.-4. To erect a first-class seacoast light-house tower, and fit it with the most approved illuminating apparatus, near Great West bay, Long Island, $30,000. New Jersey.-5. For elevating, improving, and refitting with proper illuminating apparatus the light-house at Barnegat, $12,000. 6. For a first-class light-house, to be fitted with the most approved illuminating apparatus, to be placed in the vicinity of Absecum inlet, to guide navigators clear of Absecum and Brigantine shoals, $30,000. South Carolina.-7. For changing the present small and useless light at Cape Romain into a first-class seacoast light, required to guide vessels clear of the dangerous shoals distant from six to seven miles from it, and in the track of vessels bound south of Charleston, $20,000. Florida.-8. For the erection of a first-class light-house tower, and for fitting it with a first-order illuminating apparatus, near Jupiter inlet, to mark the dangerous shoals lying off that point, and to guide vessels along that coast, $35,000. APPENDIX-NO. 1. List of the members of the Light-house Board of the United States, organized in conformity to the act of Congress approved August 31, 1852. EX OFFICIO PRESIDENT. Hon. Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treasury. CHAIRMAN. Commodore W. B. Shubrick, U. S. Navy. MEMBERS. Brevet Brig. Gen. Joseph G. Totten, Chief Engineer, U. S. Army Lieut. Col. James Kearney, U. S. Corps Topographical Engineers. Professor A. D. Bache, LL. D., Superintendent Coast Survey. Professor Joseph Henry, LL. D., Secretary of Smithsonian Institution. Commander S. F. Du Pont, U. S. Navy. SECRETARIES. Lieutenant Thornton A. Jenkins, U. S. Navy. Brevet Captain Edmund L. F. Hardcastle, U. S. Corps Topographical Engineers. Synoptical index to the laws relating to the light-house establishment of the United States. 1789, August 7. Expenses of light-houses, beacons, buoys, &c., to be paid from public treasury. 46 66 Secretary of the Treasury to contract 1820, May 15. No light-house, &c., to be erected till 1828, May 23. Compensation of light-house keepers, 1844, June 17. Commissions allowed when salary is less than $2,000... Vol. 1, p. 54 1850, Sept. 28. System of coloring and marking buoys 64 66 prescribed... Commissions allowed to collectors 1851, March 3. Certain duties on the seaboard to be performed by Superintendent of the Pamphlet laws, 1851-52, page 119: SEC. 8. Light-house board constituted-members-secretaries—their power and duties-to be attached to the office of the Secretary of the Treasury-their duties. SEC. 9. President of the board-chairman. SEC. 10. Meetings of the board. SEC. 11. Certain clerks, archives, &c., to be transferred to such board SEC. 12. Light-house districts-officer of the army or navy to be assigned to each-his pay. Page 120: SEC. 13. Rules and regulations to be established and distributed. SEC. 17. Inconsistent acts repealed-other acts continued in force— 1851, chap. 37, secs. 2, 3, continued in force-no additional salary to be paid-members of the board not to be interested. Laws of the United States relating to light-houses, buoys, beacons, &c, &c. Statutes at Large, vol. 1, page 53: SEC. 1. That all expenses which shall accrue from Expenses of supand after the 15th day of August, 1789, in the necessary 15th August, 1789, to port and repairs after support, maintenance, and repairs of all light-houses, be paid out of the beacons, buoys, and public piers erected, placed, or United States treassunk, before the passing of this act, at the entrance of or ury. within any bay, inlet, harbor, or port of the United States, for rendering the navigation thereof easy and safe, shall be defrayed out of the treasury of the United States. SEC. 3. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of Secretary of the the Treasury to provide, by contracts, which shall be Treasury to contract for building, repairapproved by the President of the United States, for ing, &c., when nebuilding a light-house near the entrance of Chesapeake cessary. bay, and for rebuilding, when necessary, and keeping in good repair, the light-houses, beacons, buoys, and public piers in the several States, and for furnishing the same with all necessary supplies; and also to agree for the salaries, wages, or hire of the person or persons appointed by the President for the superintendence and care of the same. Approved August 7, 1789. Volume 3, page 600: SEC. 7. No light-house, beacon, or land-mark shall be built or erected on any site previous to the cession of jurisdiction over the same being made to the United States. Approved May 15, 1820. Volume 4, page 284: SEC. 4. That, from and after the passage of this act, the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and empowered to regulate and fix the salaries of the respective keepers of light-houses, in such manner as he shall deem just and proper: Provided, The whole sum allowed shall not exceed an average of four hundred dollars to each keeper. Approved May 23, 1828. Volume 5, page 696: Provided, That no superintendent shall receive any of the commissions whose compensation may exceed two thousand dollars per annum. Approved June 17, 1844. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That hereafter all buoys along the coast, or in bays, harbors, sounds, or channels, shall be colored and numbered, so that in passing up the coast or sound, or entering the bay, har bor, or channel, red buoys, with even numbers, shall be passed on the starboard hand, black buoys, with uneven numbers, on the port hand, and buoys with red and black stripes on either hand; buoys in channel-ways to be colored with alternate white and black perpendicular stripes. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That there shall be allowed collectors, when acting as superintendents of light-houses, beacons, lightboats, and buoys, the same rate of commission on the disbursements of the aforesaid appropriations as were allowed and paid for the year ending fourth of March, 1849: Provided, That no collector shall receive for his services as superintendent aforesaid over the sum of four hundred dollars per annum: And provided further, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall assign to the collectors the superintendence of such light-houses, beacons, light-boats, and buoys as he may judge best and most convenient for the public interest. Approved September 28, 1850. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following appropriations be, and the same are hereby, made, and directed to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to carry the provisions of this act into effect: Provided, however, If a good title to any land which it may be necessary to use cannot be obtained on reasonable terms, or the exclusive right to such land cannot be acquired by cession, when the interest of the United States demands it, before the appropriation would by law fall into the surplus fund, in any and all such cases the appropriation shall be applicable to the objects for which they are made at any time within two years after the first meeting of the legislature in any State wherein such land may be situated subsequent to the passage of this act, to wit. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if such person as the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate shall report, in any of the cases herein provided for, that preliminary surveys are necessary to determine the site of a proposed light-house or light-boat, beacon, or buoy, or to ascertain more fully what the public exigency demands, the Secretary of the Treasury shall thereupon direct the Superintendent of the survey of the coast of the United States to perform such duty on the seaboard, and the Colonel of the Corps of Topographical Engineers to perform such duty on the northwestern lakes. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the officers so directed shall forthwith enter upon the discharge of the duty, and, after fully ascertaining the facts, shall report: First, whether the proposed facility to navigation is the most suitable for the exigency which exists; and, second, where it should be placed, if the interests of commerce demand it: third, if the thing proposed be not the most suitable, whether it is expedient to make any other kind of improvement: fourth, whether the proposed light has any connexion with other lights, and, if so, whether it cannot be so located as to subserve both the general and the local wants of trade and navigation: and, fifth, whether there be any, and, if any, what, other facts of importance touching the subject. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all such reports shall, as speedily as may be, be laid before the Secretary of the Treasury; and, if such as to authorize the work without further legislation, he shall forthwith proceed with it: otherwise, such reports shall be laid befɔre Congress at the next ensuing session. But in all cases where the person designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, under the second section. of this act, does not report such preliminary examination as expedient, the provisions of this act shall, without delay, be carried into execution. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That hereafter, in all new lighthouses, in all light-houses requiring new lighting apparatus, and in all light-houses as yet unsupplied with illuminating apparatus, the lens or Fresnel system shall be adopted, if, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury, the public interest will be subserved thereby. SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the President be, and he is hereby, required to cause to be detailed from the engineer corps of the army, from time to time, such officers as may be necessary to superintend the construction and renovating light-houses. Approved March 3, 1851. SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and required to appoint, immediately after the pas sage of this act, two officers of the navy of high rank, one officer of the corps of engineers of the army, one officer of the corps of topographical engineers of the army, and two civilians of high scientific attainments, whose services may be at the disposal of the President, and an officer of the navy and an officer of engineers of the army as secretaries, who shall constitute the Light-house Board of the United States, and shall have power to adopt such rules and regulations for the government of their meetings as they may judge expedient; and the board so constituted shall be attached to the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, and, under his superintendence, shall discharge all the ad |