that steps be taken looking to the adoption of treaty stipulations having for their purpose to preserve the falls in their present condition and to prevent further diversion of the water of the Niagara River." REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. In the annual report of the Chief of Engineers, BrigadierGeneral Marshall presented to the Secretary of War, under date of September 29, 1909, considerable space is given to the matter of the preservation of Niagara Falls and the control of the waters of the Niagara river undertaken as a result of the passage of the Burton bill in 1906. The following extract from the report of the Chief Engineer will, we think, be read with much interest: THE CONTROL AND REGULATION OF THE WATERS OF NIAGARA RIVER AND THE PRESERVATION OF NIAGARA FALLS. The approved projects of operations under the various allotments from the appropriation made by the act of Congress of June 29, 1906, had for their purpose the determination of the effects of the diversions authorized by that act, amounting to 15,600 cubic feet per second on the American side, and on the Canadian side of water sufficient for the development and importation into the United States of 160,000 horsepower, upon the navigable capacity of the Niagara river, on its integrity and proper volume as a boundary stream, on the level of Lake Erie, and on the scenic grandeur of Niagara Falls. The determination of these questions, so far as physically possible, involves surveys and measurements, of levels, of volumes of discharges, of current velocities and directions, and of depths over the crest of the falls. As these are operations of a character similar to those ordinarily performed by the Lake Survey, upon the recommendation of the Chief of Engineers, the Secretary of War authorized the performance of the work involved therein by the Lake Survey, and for this purpose successive allotments have been made, of which two one of $5,000 and another of $3,000pertained to the fiscal years 1907 and 1908. At the beginning of the present fiscal year operations were in progress upon the work covered by the project for the second allotment (that of $3,000 above referred to). These operations had for their purpose the making of such additional discharge measurements in the Niagara river as seemed necessary in order to confirm or else to disprove the conclusion, derived from the observations of 1907, that the increased diversions since 1898 had produced no measurable effect upon the level of Lake Erie. This conclusion appeared so anomalous as to require confirmation or explanation. From July 1 to August 7, 1908, sixty-eight discharge measurements were made and the customary accessory gauge and rating observations made. In addition, the erosible portion of the discharge cross section, at the International Bridge, Buffalo, was sounded, and it was found that spans 1, 3 and 4 had not changed since originally measured in 1899, but that in span 2 there had been an increase in mean depth of over two feet. This span, however, carries only 21⁄2 per cent. of the flow and the change is therefore of minor consequence. A shut down of the plant of the Niagara Falls Power Company, covering a large part of the period from 1:30 A. M., July 19, to 7:20 P. M. on August 2, 1908, afforded an unusual opportunity for testing previous deductions concerning, and for ascertaining directly, the effects produced by changes in the quantity of water diverted in the Grass Island-Chippewa pool, and through the courtesy of the company full advantage was taken of this opportunity. Briefly summarized, the results of the operations of 1908 serve to prove that while the increase in diversion since 1898 in the Chippewa-Grass Island pool, amounting roughly to 7,000 cubic feet per second, has produced no apparent effect upon the level of Lake Erie, this is probably due to the fact that the lowering has been compensated by the construction during the same period of the diversion works of the Ontario Power Company below Chippewa. In the absence of such compensation, the lowering due to the increased diversion would have amounted to less than half an inch. This conclusion is based upon the discovered relation between the volume of the diversion in Chippewa-Grass Island pool at the falls and the discharge of Lake Erie, which, as derived from study of gauge relations and of the measurements during the shut down, shows that any change in the volume of |