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Feb. 11, 1880.

R. S., 431.

R. S., 432.

R. S.. 4691.

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 shall be colored with alternate white and black perpendicular stripes.

316. Nautical Almanac.

There shall be printed annually at the Government Printing Office fifteen hundred copies of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac and of the papers supplementary thereto, of which one hundred shall be for the use of the Senate, four hundred for the House of Representatives, and one thousand for the public service, to be distributed by the Navy Department. Additional copies of the Ephemeris and of the Nautical Almanac extracted therefrom may be ordered by the Secretary of the Navy for sale.

317. Charts and manuals.

There shall be a Hydrographic office attached to the Bureau of Navigation in the Navy Department, for the improvement of the means for navigating safely the vessels of the Navy and of the mercantile marine, by providing, under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, accurate and cheap nautical charts, sailing directions, navigators, and manuals of instructions for the use of all vessels of the United States, and for the benefit and use of navigators generally.

The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to cause to be prepared, at the Hydrographic Office attached to the Bureau of Navigation in the Navy Department, maps, charts, and nautical books relating to and required in navigation, and to publish and furnish them to navigators at the cost of printing and paper, and to purchase the plates and copyrights of such existing maps, charts, navigators, sailing directions and instructions, as he may consider necessary, and when he may consider it expedient to do so, and under such regulations and instructions as he may prescribe.

The charts published by the Coast Survey shall be sold June 20, 1878. at the office at Washington at the price of the printing and paper thereof, and elsewhere at the same price with the average cost of delivery added thereto; and hereafter there shall be no free distribution of such charts except to the departments of the United States and to the several States and officers of the United States requiring them for public

Mar. 3, 1979.

use.

Senators, Representatives and Delegates to the House of Representatives shall each be entitled to not more than ten charts published by the Coast Survey for each regular session of Congress.

318. Storm and weather signals.

Oct. 1, 1890.

The Chief of the Weather Bureau, under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture, on and after July first, Sec. 3. eighteen hundred and ninety-one, shall have charge of the forecasting of weather, the issue of storm warnings, the display of weather and flood signals for the benefit of agriculture, commerce, and navigation, the gauging and reporting of rivers, the maintenance and operation of seacoast telegraph lines and the collection and transmission of marine intelligence for the benefit of commerce and navigation, the reporting of temperature and rain-fall conditions for the cotton interests, the display of frost and cold-wave signals, the distribution of meteorological information in the interests of agriculture and commerce, and the taking of such meteorological observations as may be necessary to establish and record the climatic conditions of the United States, or as are essential for the proper execution of the foregoing duties.

319. Meridians.

The meridian of the Observatory at Washington shall be R. S., 435. adopted and used as the American meridian for all astronomical purposes, and the meridian of Greenwich shall be adopted for all nautical purposes.

PART XXXIII.—OBSTRUCTIONS TO NAVIGATION.

320. Sunken wrecks.

321. Bridge piers and abutments. 322. Dumping in navigable waters.

323. Wharves, piers, bulkheads, etc. 324. General obstructions.

June 14, 1880.
Sec. 4.

Aug. 2, 1882.

June 14, 1880.
Sec. 4.

320. Sunken wrecks.

Whenever hereafter the navigation of any river, lake, harbor, or bay, or other navigable water of the United States, shall be obstructed or endangered by any sunken vessel or water-craft, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, upon satisfactory information thereof, to cause reasonable notice, of not less than thirty days, to be given, personally or by publication, at least once a week in the newspaper published nearest the locality of such sunken vessel or craft, to all persons interested in such vessel or craft, or in the cargo thereof, of the purpose of said Secretary, unless such vessel or craft shall be removed as soon thereafter as practicable by the parties interested therein, to cause the same to be removed. If such sunken vessel or craft and cargo shall not be removed by the parties interested therein as soon as practicable after the date of the giving of such notice by publication, or after such personal service of notice, as the case may be, such sunken vessel or craft shall be treated as abandoned and derelict, and the Secretary of War shall proceed to remove the same. Such sunken vessel or craft and cargo and all property therein when so removed shall, after reasonable notice of the time and place of sale, be sold to the highest bidder or bidders for cash, and the proceeds of such sales shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of a fund for the removal of such obstructions to navigation, under the direction of the Secretary of War, and to be paid out for that purpose on his requisition therefor. The provisions of this act shall apply to all such wrecks whether removed under this act or under any other act of Congress. The Secretary of War may, in his discretion, sell and dispose of any such sunken craft, vessel, or cargo, or property therein, before the raising or removal thereof, according to the same regulations that are in the said act prescribed for the sale of the same after the removal thereof; and all laws and parts of laws inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

Such sum of money as may be necessary to execute this section of this act is hereby appropriated, out of any money

in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, to be paid out on the requisition of the Secretary of War.

Sec. 8.

All wrecks of vessels and other obstructions to the navi- Aug. 17, 1894. gation of any port, roadstead, harbor, or navigable river, or other navigable waters of the United States, which may have been permitted by the owners thereof or the parties by whom they were caused to remain to the injury of commerce and navigation for a longer period than two months, shall be subject to be broken up and removed by the Secretary of War, without liability for any damage to the owners of the same.

321. Bridge piers and abutments.

Sec. 2.

Whenever complaint shall be made to the Secretary of Aug. 11, 1888. War that by reason of the placing in any navigable waters of the United States of any bridge pier or abutment, the current of such waters has been so deflected from its natural course as to cause by producing caving of banks or otherwise serious damage or danger to property, it shall be his duty to make inquiry, and if it shall be ascertained that the complaint is well founded, he shall cause the owners or persons operating such bridge to repair such damage or prevent such danger to property by such means as he shall indicate and within such time as he may name, and in default thereof the owners or persons operating such bridge shall be liable in any court of competent jurisdiction to the persons injured in a sum double the amount of said injury.

Sec. 4

Whenever the Secretary of War shall have good reason Sept. 19, 1890. to believe that any railroad or other bridge now constructed, or which may hereafter be constructed over any of the navigable water-ways of the United States is an unreasonable obstruction to the free navigation of such waters on account of insufficient height, width or span, or otherwise, or where there is difficulty in passing the drawopening or the draw-span of such bridge by rafts, steamboats, or other water-craft, it shall be the duty of the said Secretary, first giving the parties reasonable opportunity to be heard, to give notice to the persons or corporations owning or controlling such bridge so to alter the same as to render navigation through or under it reasonably free, easy, and unobstructed; and in giving such notice he shall specify the changes required to be made, and shall prescribe in each case a reasonable time in which to make them. If at the end of such time the alteration has not been made, the Secretary of War shall forthwith notify the United States district attorney for the district in which such bridge is situated, to the end that the criminal proceedings mentioned in the succeeding section may be taken.

If the persons, corporation, or association owning or Sec. 5. controlling any railroad or other bridge shall, after receiving notice to that effect as hereinbefore required from the Secretary of War and within the time prescribed by

Sept. 19, 1890.
Sec. 6.

July 13, 1892.
Sec. 7.

him, willfully fail or refuse to remove the same, or to comply with the lawful order of the Secretary of War in the premises such persons, corporation or association shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and every month such persons, corporation, or association shall remain in default in respect to the removal or alteration of such bridge shall be deemed a new offense, and subject the persons, corporation, or association so offending to the penalties above prescribed.

322. Dumping in navigable waters.

It shall not be lawful to cast, throw, empty, or unlade, or cause, suffer, or procure to be cast, thrown, emptied, or unladen, either from or out of any ship, vessel, lighter, barge, boat, or other craft, or from the shore, pier, wharf, furnace, manufacturing establishments, or mills of any kind whatever, any ballast, stone, slate, gravel, earth, rubbish, wreck, filth, slabs, edgings, sawdust, slag, cinders, ashes, refuse, or other waste of any kind, into any port, road, roadstead, harbor, haven, navigable river, or navigable waters of the United States which shall tend to impede or obstruct navigation, or to deposit or place or cause, suffer, or procure to be deposited or placed, any ballast, stone, slate, gravel, earth, rubbish, wreck, filth, slabs, edgings, sawdust, or other waste in any place or situation on the bank of any navigable waters where the same shall be liable to be washed into such navigable waters, either by ordinary or high tides, or by storms or floods, or otherwise, whereby navigation shall or may be impeded or obstructed:

Provided, That nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to the casting out, unlading, or throwing out of any ship or vessel, lighter, barge, boat, or other craft, any stones, rocks, bricks, lime, or other materials used, or to be used, in or toward the building, repairing, or keeping in repair any quay, pier, wharf, weir, bridge, building, or other work lawfully erected or to be erected on the banks or sides of any port, harbor, haven, channel, or navigable river, or to the casting out, unlading, or depositing of any material excavated for the improvement of navigable waters, into such places and in such manner as may be deemed by the United States officer supervising said improvement most judicious and practicable and for the best interests of such improvements, or to prevent the depos iting of any substance above mentioned under a permit from the Secretary of War, which he is hereby authorized to grant, in any place designated by him where navigation will not be obstructed thereby.

323. Wharves, piers, bulkheads, etc.

It shall not be lawful to build any wharf, pier, dolphin, boom, dam, weir, breakwater, bulkhead, jetty or structure of any kind outside established harbor lines, or in any navigable waters of the United States where no harbor lines are or may be established, without the permission of the Secretary of War, in any port, roadstead, haven, har

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