F. Showing miscellaneous expenses necessary to be incurred by each cadet The following are permanent and necessary charges against each cadet, while at the Academy, and are entered every two months, in his account for the whole or part of the time. Contribution for board, 25 cents a month, or for four years, $12 00 Board -$8 13 per month, or for four years, 389 22 Washing 2.00 do. do. do. 96 00 do. 02 Iron bedstead and table fund-- Dancing-master- India rubber and cloak fund-- Cash for spending Subscription to monument-- 06 per month, or for one year, 7 do. 09 per month, or for four years, 19 per month, or for two years, 01 per month, or for four years, e 271 do. do. 33 per month, or for one year, Damage to quartermaster's dpt. 01 per month, or for four years, do. Ordnance do. Mess commons Equipment fund 78 02 do. do. 24 4 32 01 27 do. do. do... 4 56 .18 do. 3. 60 do. 13 20 3 96 24 XII REPORT OF THE COLONEL OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS. BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, SIR: I have the honor to submit the following annual report of the operations of the corps for the year 1851, and an estimate of the amounts required for the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1852. Survey of the Lakes.-This interesting and highly valuable work has been pushed forward with much activity. The increased and increasing commerce of the lakes demand more extensive and more rapid operations of this survey than the small annual appropriations heretofore asked and granted admit, and in consequence, the estimate for this year has been somewhat increased. The charts of the surveys already made are in a state of preparation, and it is confidently anticipated that some of them will soon be ready for distribution. The idea of holding these charts for sale, seems to me incompatible with the character of our government, and of its fostering care of the great commerce involved; it is therefore respectfully recommended that a certain number, say five hundred copies or sets of the charts, should be distributed gratuitously. For this purpose, an appropriation, at present of about fifteen hundred dollars, will be required, for which an estimate is submitted. The report of Capt. Macomb, hereto appended, No. 1, will give a detailed account of the progress of the survey. The survey of the creek boundary, from the frontiers of Arkansas, nearly to the 100° of longitude west, has been completed. The report and map are received, and are ready for any call which Congress may please to make in reference to them. This survey was made under an application froin the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The extreme care and the skill with which this line was surveyed and marked, make it of great importance to the geography of that country, as a line which may be relied upon, and which may be assumed as a starting point or line of reference in any future surveys. The survey of the route for a road from St. Louis to the great bend of the Red river of Louisiana has been completed, and the report and map have been received at the bureau, and are ready for any call which Congress may please to make in reference to them. The expedition to the Salt Lake of the Territory of Utah, referred to in my report of last year, has completed its field operations, and has returned. The report, map, and illustrating views of this expedition are being printed, under a resolution of the Senate, passed towards the close of the last session, and will be ready for delivery during the ensuing session. An examination of the work will justify a high compliment to the vigilance, industry, intelligence and accuracy of Captain Stansbury, of the corps, who was in command of the expedition. Another expedition is now in the field, under Brevet Captain Sitgreaves, of the corps. This expedition takes the route from Sante Fe to the headwaters of the Zuni river, thence down the Zuni to its junction with the Colorado of the bay of California, thence down the Colorado to its junction with that bay, at which point the exploring duties of the expedition will cease. The probable wants of this party involved the necessity of the item in the estimate now submitted. A law of September 30, 1850, directed certain surveys in reference to the inundations of the Mississippi, and to the improvement of its entrance into the gulf of Mexico. The honorable Secretary having selected Mr. Ellet, civil engineer, for that purpose, he was sent to examine the mouths of the Mississippi, and to report a plan for their improvement. His report and plan will be found printed as Senate Executive document No. 17, 2d session 31st Congress. Mr. Ellet's attention was then directed to the inundations of the Mississippi, in reference to means of protection against these. His report and surveys this branch of his duties have been received, and are ready for a call of Congress. An expedition for the same purpose was organized under this bureau, and under the approbation of the Secretary, and was placed under the control of that highly informed and energetic officer, Captain A. A. Humphreys. It is much to be regretted that the devotion of this officer to the duty induced him to remain in the field, exposed to the pernicious consequences of such a course in that climate, until disease placed his life in extreme jeopardy, and obliged the War Department, in its kindness, to order him to the north, where he now is, yet too feeble to attend to duty. On this account, the interesting report anticipated from him will not soon be received. Under the hope of supplying some remedy to this unfortunate condition of the duty, Lieutenant Colonel Long was, on the 10th of October, directed to repair to Philadelphia, in order to confer with Captain Humphreys, and to draw up a report, or to state what further field-work was in his judgment required. He will not be able to make a full report soon. In a letter dated the 8th November, he says: The operations performed by Captain Humphreys' assistants, now at Louisville, are still to be arranged before the report can be prepared. The operations in progress at New Orleans must be continued. In their present unfinished state, no deductions, answerable to the purpose for which they were instituted, can be drawn from them. Two officers of the corps are yet occupied in. restoring the destroyed maps of the northeast boundary survey; three are employed on the Mexican boundary survey; two are with the Treasury Department, connected with its light-house arrangements; two are engaged as assistant professors at the Military Academy, and one is on the survey of the coast. These heavy draughts upon the corps for duties not contemplated in its organization, although necessary to meet Government demands, seriously embarrass its more direct duties under the immediate control of the War Department, and have forced the department to the temporary employinent of civil engineers, to the embarrassment of appropriations, in which such employments were not contemplated. In reference to these detachments from the corps, allow me respectfully to refer to the remarks in pages four and five (printed copy) of the report from this bureau of November 14th, 1850. But these detachments fall far short of the demands made upon the War Department, by the different de |