inviting the attendance of the Society during the Exposition of 1900 at a Congress for the Study of Popular Traditions, and enclosing the proposed programme of proceedings. On motion it was resolved that the President be requested to appoint a delegate to represent the Society in the Congress.

A letter from Mr. A. Radcliffe Grote, in regard to a fossil butterfly described by Dr. H. Rebel, of Vienna, which confirms Mr. Grote's theories as to the Papilionides, and stating that in consequence of Mr. Grote's papers published in the Proceedings of this Society, Dr. Rebel, in the edition of Dr. Standinger's European catalogue, will retain the Papilionides at the head of the system.

The deaths of the following members of the Society were announced :

Daniel Garrison Brinton, M.D., of Media, Pa., at Atlantic City, N. J., on July 31, 1899.

Mr. Frank Thomson, of Philadelphia, on June 6, 1899. Sir William Henry Flower, K.C.B., F.R.S., of London, England, aged 68 years, on July 1, 1899.

Mr. William P. Tatham, of Philadelphia, aged 79 years, at Atlantic City, N. J., on August 5, 1899.

Prof. Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen, of Heidelberg, Germany, aged 89 years, on August 16, 1899.

Hon. Charles P. Daly, of New York, aged 83 years, on September 19, 1899.

W. G. A. Bonwill, D.D.S., of Philadelphia, on September 24, 1899.

On motion of Mr. Prime, it was

Resolved, That the President be requested to appoint gentlemen to prepare memoirs of Messrs. Daniel G. Brinton, M.D., Frank Thomson, William P. Tatham and W. G. A. Bonwill, D.D.S.

The following papers were read:

"Results Secured at Aransas Pass, Tex., by the Reaction Breakwater," by Prof. Lewis M. Haupt.

Genealogical Trees of Butterflies," by A. Radcliffe Grote. "Gold in the Glacial Drift of the Adirondacks," by Mr. Frederick Prime.

HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE EFFORTS MADE TO DEMONSTRATE THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE . REACTION BREAKWATER AT ARANSAS PASS, TEX., WITH RESULTS TO FEBRUARY, 1899. (Plates VI-VIII.)

BY LEWIS M. HAUPT.

(Read October 6, 1899.)

NECESSITY FOR IMPROVED METHODS.-Inasmuch as this Society has already set its seal of commendation upon a new method proposed nearly thirteen years ago for the alleviation of ocean bars, it becomes a pleasure to complete the record to date by a brief recital of subsequent events. For some years prior to the filing of the theses, for investigation, in the spring of 1887, I was impressed with the serious obstructions and dangers to commerce due to the prevalence of sand bars on alluvial coasts and the unsatisfactory as well as expensive methods in vogue for their improvement.

In fact, the only harbors of importance on our Atlantic and Gulf seaboard which admitted vessels of over seventeen feet draught at M. L. W., south of New York, were Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Port Royal, Pensacola and New Orleans, only six in a coast line covering about 3200 miles. The ruling depths on the bars in many of the other inlets was limited to from eight to twelve feet.

The methods of improvement in general use by maritime engineers to-day are the building of two parallel or convergent jetties for the purpose of concentrating the ebb currents upon that portion of the bar included between them and dredging a channel through this protected area, involving large expenditures for construction and maintenance.

HISTORY.-To remove these barriers from our doors a critical examination was made of a large number of special cases both at home and abroad and by comparative studies of local effects, combined with the operation of the general laws of tides and currents, certain deductions were reached as to the causes operating to produce them. These deductions were formulated in the paper entitled "The Physical Phenomena of Harbor Entrances," submitted to the Society in April, and for which there was awarded the highly esteemed Magellanic premium on December 16, 1887.

Encouraged by this substantial recognition of the merits of the invention, I had the honor to submit the plans to the Board of United

States Engineers having general jurisdiction over river and harbor improvements, in January of the following year (1888), with the view to their introduction by the only parties who could use them. The Board, however, made a report on the 16th of March following, concluding in these words: "The views are purely theoretical, are unconfirmed by experience and contain nothing not already well known, which has a useful application in the improvement of our harbors," thus making a direct issue with the conclusions reached by this Society.

On learning of this report, accidentally, some time later and being anxious to confirm "the views" by establishing a precedent, applications were made to several Chiefs of Engineers in succession, on June 30, July 30 and September 14, of 1888, requesting an opportunity to make a demonstration, but without eliciting any response whatever.

This report of the Board was so directly at variance with the conclusions reached by this distinguished Society, and apparently so erroneous as to the observed movement of littoral drift, that a discussion thereof was carefully prepared and read before this Society on January 18, 1889, under the title, "Discussion on the Dynamic Action of the Ocean in Building Bars."

A copy of this paper was likewise mailed to the members of the Board of Engineers, but elicited no reply. On February 24, 1888, the subject was also presented to the Committee on River and Harbor Improvements of the House of Representatives, attracting much interest and close attention, but no action. Thus the efforts to create additional commercial facilities and to demonstrate the truth of a physical law appeared to be thwarted and there remained nothing to do but to await an opportunity.

This did not occur until 1895, or six years later, when the Government decided to concentrate all the appropriations for the West Gulf coast upon the great problem of creating at least one deepwater entrance at Galveston and abandoned the remaining ports to private enterprise.

Then it happened that Mr. George W. Fulton, President of the Coleman Fulton Pasture Company, and thoroughly familiar with the conditions at Aransas Pass, Tex., from a residence of over fifty years, and Mr. Brewster Cameron, of Tucson, Ariz., succeeded in persuading the Aransas Pass Harbor Company, holding a franchise See PROCEEDINGS of March, 1889.

from Congress, to undertake the construction of a breakwater on this plan, after all previous attempts had failed to secure increased depth.

ARANSAS PASS.-It may be well to state just here that this inlet opens into Corpus Christi, Aransas, Copanio and Nueces bays, covering in all about 350 square miles of tidal waters; that the mean range of the tide of the Gulf is but fourteen inches, and that for many years the pass has been drifting southwestwardly at the average rate of 260 feet per year. It is now about 175 miles west of Galveston; is the point farthest west on the Gulf coast of the United States where it is possible to create an inner harbor, without great cost and has consequently a larger extent of tributary territory than any other Atlantic port, with the important collateral of giving the shortest transcontinental haul. Its position is therefore strategic, and but for the lack of sufficient water on the bar it should long since have become the great metropolis of the Gulf. The controlling natural depths were from six to eight feet on the site of the recent bar, while at Galveston they were twelve and onehalf feet, which gave the latter place the precedence and caused the termini of the transportation routes to be located at that point.

GOVERNMENT EFFORTS.-The superiority of the more western location, however, led the Government to make several vain attempts to secure a navigable channel at Aransas Pass, and as early as January 13, 1853, Lieut. George B. McClellan reported on the pass which was then some two miles east of its present position, and when, in consequence of its steeper slope and more direct discharge, "the depths were about nine feet, but that the channel was constantly shifting." That was a very different pass from the present one and not comparable with it. Fifteen years later (1869) the citizens of Rockport constructed a short wooden spur dike 600 feet long from the shore of St. Joseph's Island on the north side of the pass, which increased the depth two feet, but which disappeared with the destruction of the dike in a few years by storms.

Surveys were renewed by the Government in 1870-71, but no recommendation to improve was made because of the great expense of building a jetty sufficiently strong to withstand the storms of the Gulf because of the alleged existence of quicksands. This it was said was an "insuperable objection to any such experiment." Nevertheless, after eight years more, or in 1879, it was estimated that a channel twelve feet deep might be secured over the bar by

two jetties at a cost of $759,185, and work was actually commenced on this project by the partial construction of the westerly jetty in 1880. The head of Mustang Island was revetted, sand fences built and other work done during the following decade until operations were suspended in May, 1889, after an expenditure of $550,416, with a resulting depth of seven and one-half feet over the bar. In 1887 it was reported to be eight and one-half feet. In the meantime it should be stated that the project was revised in 1887 so as to secure a probable twenty-foot depth. "The original estimated cost of this work as here revised is $2,052,543.72.' 171 Work on the Government jetty, which was of mattresses covered with rock, practically ceased about 1885, when it extended seaward including the shore end 5400 feet, and a few years later it was officially reported to have "disappeared," thus confirming the previous opinion as to the difficulties of maintaining such work at that location.

The condition of the bar at the close of the Government work is shown on Plate VI.

PRIVATE EFFORTS.-The years from 1890 to 1895 were spent in experiments by the Harbor Company which was chartered on the 22d day of March, 1890, by the State of Texas, and which secured the passage of an act of Congress, May 12 of the same year, authorizing it to create a twenty-foot channel at Aransas Pass from its own resources. The tribulations of this company and the failure to secure results during the financial depression of those intervening years need not be recorded. Suffice it to say that a contract was made by Mr. Cameron, acting for the Harbor Company, and Charles Clarke & Co., of Galveston, contractors, on the 3d day of July, 1895, to construct only a part of the breakwater on the plans under consideration. The work of placing the foundation mattresses was promptly commenced during the month and vigorously prosecuted. It proceeded so rapidly and was accompanied by such pronounced results that by the end of October it was stated that there were thirteen feet entirely across the bar (see Report of Board of U. S. Engineers, Nov. 22, 1897). This without dredging and at an unfavorable season of the year.

UNEXPECTED OBSTRUCTIONS.—It then transpired that the remains of the old Government jetty, which was reported to have “disappeared," were still in place covered with rock, crossing the bed of

1 Report of Chief Engineer, 1887, Part ii, p. 1432.