(11,088 - 6,134) / 4,954 = 87.5 per cent.

--_eighty-seven and one-half per cent_., or a saving in dollars and
cents of four thousand nine hundred and fifty-four dollars ($4,954).

In this city, Philadelphia, no allowance for the consumption of water is
made in the case of first class engines, such engines being charged the
same rate per annum per horse-power as an inferior engine, while,
as shown by the above example, a saving in water of _thirty-one and
four-tenths per cent_. has been attained by the employment of a
first-class engine. The builders of such engines will always give a
guarantee of their consumption of water, so that the purchaser can be
able in advance to estimate this as accurately as he can the amount of
fuel he will use.

* * * * *




RIVER IMPROVEMENTS NEAR ST. LOUIS.


The improvement of the Mississippi River near St. Louis progresses
satisfactorily. The efficacy of the jetty system is illustrated in the
lines of mattresses which showed accumulations of sand deposits ranging
from the surface of the river to nearly sixteen feet in height. At Twin
Hollow, thirteen miles from St. Louis and six miles from Horse-Tail Bar,
there was found a sand bar extending over the widest portion of the
river on which the engineering forces were engaged. Hurdles are built