The fortifications of San Francisco Harbor will be, when completed, viz: Of these works, Fort Alcatraz is nearly finished, and the defenses at Fort Point are in an advanced condition. The ordnance intended for these works are of the heaviest and most effective used in the service, consisting of eight and ten-inch Columbiads, sixtyeight, forty-two and thirty-two pound guns, furnished with all the improvements and appliances of modern warfare. 3. MILITARY SYSTEM OF THE STATE. By the Act of April 25, 1855, the State is organized into six Military Districts, with six Major-Generals and twelve Brigadier-Generals.* All free and able-bodied citizens, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, residing in the State, not exempt by law, are subject to military duty, and are required to be enrolled therefor. The Governor of the State is Commander-inChief, and is authorized to appoint and nominate an Aid-de-Camp, for each and every Brigade. Every free white male inhabitant of the State, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, not a member of any volunteer company, is subject to a tax of twenty-five cents, for the support of the militia of the State. Number of citizens liable to military duty (estimated) one hundred and eighty-three thousand. There are at present organized in the State thirty volunteer uniformed companies, with an aggregate of eighteen hundred members. 4. MILITARY DISTRICTS. First Division.—The counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Monterey. Second Division.-The counties of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa. Third Division.-The counties of San Joaquin, Mariposa, Merced, Fresno, Tulare, Buena Vista, Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Calaveras. Fourth Division.-The counties of Amador, El Dorado, Sacramento, Placer, Nevada and Sierra. Fifth Division.-The counties of Yuba, Sutter, Yolo, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Marin and Mendocino. Sixth Division.-The counties of Butte, Plumas, Colusa, Shasta, Tehama Siskiyou, Trinity, Humboldt, Klamath and Del Norte. The Militia Act of 1850, organized the State into four Military Districts with four Major-Generals and eight Brigadier-Generals. The following were elected by the Legislature, April 11, 1850; T. J. Green, J. E. Brackett, David F. Douglass, and J. H. Bean, Major-Generals. J. H. Eastland, A. M. Winn, R. Semple, J. McDonald, J. E. Addison, D. P. Baldwin, T. H. Bowen and J. M. Covarubias, Brigadier-Generals. For List of Officers now in commission, see p. 100. XII.-NAVY DEPARTMENT. 1. NAVY YARD, MARE ISLAND, CAL.* Capt. R. B. CUNNINGHAM, U. S. N....... . Commandant. The position for the Navy Yard, Mare Island, was selected and located by a board of officers charged with that duty, in 1850. The first appropriation, $200,000, was made by Congress for founding the yard in August, 1854. The subsequent appropriations made, have been in 1855, $345,000; in 1856, $322,000; in 1857, $399,880; in 1858, $493,921. Total appropriations to the close of the fiscal year, June, 1859, $1,760,801. Operations were commenced October 1st, 1854, and all the temporarily necessary workshops and buildings constructed, beside temporary wooden wharves for landing stores and materials. About thirty acres of ground, requiring heavy grading and filling in, have been brought to the established grade of the yard. A smithery, one story in hight and six hundred and fifty-eight feet frontage, by fiftyfive feet in width, designed to contain sixty-seven forges, a steam engine, and all the necessary appliances of such a structure, with a chimney one hundred and twenty-seven feet high, and its funnel nine feet in diameter; a store-house, four hundred feet long by fifty-five feet wide, two stories high; the Commandant's house, forty-two feet square and three stories high; four blocks (eight houses) of officers' quarters, also three stories in hight; a joiners' shop and timber shed, four hundred feet long by sixty-five feet wide, two stories high, have been completed. There are in the course of construction two additional buildings, four hundred feet in length, for the storage of timber etc., and for use as a cooperage; two blocks (four houses) for officers' quarters, similar to those already finished, and a two-story building, two hundred feet in length by fifty-five feet in width, for a plumbers' and coppersmith's shop. These buildings are all of brick, are built in the most substantial manner and of the best materials. A stone quay-wall, five hundred and fifty feet in length, has been built, and the foundation for two hundred feet more made ready. The magazine, now in the course of completion, is one hundred and thirty-six feet in length by sixty-five feet in width, and will cost, when finished, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars; a shellhouse, and three cisterns of a capacity of one hundred and forty thousand gallons each, have been finished, and preparations made for the commencement of a building, eleven hundred and sixty feet long, to be used for a machine shop. A sectional dry-dock and a basin and railway have been completed by contract at a cost of $1,400,000. The sectional dry-dock, by order of the Navy Department, is now placed at the service of the commercial marine of the Pacific Coast at rates of dockage barely covering repairs and expenses of operating it, whenever it can be shown that any private works of the kind are incompetent for the purpose. * For List of Officers, Clerks, etc., see p. 58. + Exclusive of the cost of Sectional Dock, Basin and Railway, one million four hundred thousand dollars. This Navy Yard is the only one on the west coast of America, and must grow in importance, as it will in size and usefulness, every year. Its facilities and appliances have been, and will be from this time forward, equal to all the demands made upon them, as not only all the vessels of the Pacific squadron needing them, have undergone repairs at this yard, but a large number of merchant ships have been docked and repaired. It is designed and expected that this Navy Yard shall increase in size and facilities, more rapidly than the requirements of the Pacific squadron will demand, in anticipation of the future necessities of our naval marine, when it shall have increased in proportion to our national greatness. If the original plans be carried out, and the works to be constructed shall be commensurate with those already built, many years will be required to complete them, and probably an expenditure of some $15,000,000 or $20,000,000; as among the many works marked out on the plan of the yard, yet to be constructed, are eight stone dry-docks. It is hoped and believed that, when finished according to the extensive scale adopted, the Navy Yard at Mare Island will be the largest, most complete and best dock-yard in the world. 2. VESSELS OF WAR OF THE UNITED STATES, NOV. 1857. The officers marked thus (*), have the rank of Commanders; thus (†) Lieutenants; the rest are Captains. Name and Rate-Guns. Where and when Built. Officers. Where Stationed. SHIPS OF THE LINE-10. Pennsylvania ...... .120 Philadelphia .......1837 *John R. Tucker...... Rec'ing ship, Norfolk Columbus Ohio North Carolina Delaware Alabama.... ..80 Washington........1819 In ordinary.. Norfolk. ..1820 Samuel F. Hazard... Rec'ing ship, Boston. .84 Philadelphia.......1820* James F. Schenck. Rec'ing ship, N. York ..84 Norfolk, Va.........1820 In ordinary.. ..84 On the stocks............ Norfolk... Portsmouth, N. H.... Virginia Vermont. New York,. .84 On the stocks... .1848 In ordinary.. Boston.... .84 On the stocks..... Norfolk ..... Sackett's Harbor.... New Orleans......... .84 On the stocks.... FRIGATES-13. Independence .........56 Boston... .1814* Archib'ld B. Fairfax R'g ship, S. Francisco United States......... .50 Philadelphia .......1797 In ordinary.... Potomac Columbia Congress Cumberland Savannah Raritan ....... Santee ....... Sabine .... 50 Washington ........1821 In ordinary Norfolk Portsmouth, N. H... New York.. .50 Portsmouth.........1841* Thomas T. Craven... Mediterranean .50 Boston........ .1842 John S. Misroon... Coast of Africa... .50 New York...........1842 In ordinary St. Lawrence............50 Norfolk...............1847 Joseph B. Hull.. SLOOPS OF WAR-19. Constellation... Macedonian Portsmouth Plymouth St. Mary's New York............... Portsmouth, N. H... .22 Rebuilt, Norfolk..1854 Charles H. Bell...... Mediterranean .22 Portsmouth .22 Boston....... .22 Washington.. .22 Norfolk .1843 *A. H. Foote........ East Indies... .22 Philadelphia........1840* Richard L. Page... East Indies Decatur.. Marion Dale Preble.... BRIGS-3. Bainbridge Perry. Dolphin...... Name and Rate-Guns. Where and when Built. Saratoga Falmouth St. Louis.. 20 Portsmouth ........1842* Frederick Chatard. Home Squadron .20 Boston...... ..20 Philadelphia ........1828 .20 Washington.. ...1828* John W. Livingston Coast of Africa... .1837 Robert G. Robb...... Home Squadron .20 New York...... ....1837 William Smith....... East Indies .16 New York.... ....1839* Henry K. Thatcher. Pacific Ocean ..16 Boston .1839 Coast of Africa.. ..16 Philadelphia...... .1839 William McBlair... ..........16 Portsmouth.........1839 In ordinary .6 Boston.............. .1842 In ordinary ..4 New York ..........1836 In ordinary 66 .1856 Fitting for sea......... Norfolk ..40 New York..........1856 William L. Hudson... Special service... Screw, 2d Class-1. San Jacinto........ ....13 New York ..........1850 * Henry H. Bell...... East Indies. Massachusetts.... .9 Transf'd from W. D. In ordinary............ San Francisco.... Princeton ........10 Rebuilt, Norfolk...1851 Receiving ship......... Philadelphia....... Side-Wheel, 1st Class-3 Mississippi. ..10 Philadelphia.......1841 Wm. C. Nicholson... East Indies.... Susquehanna............15 Philadelphia.......1850 Joshua R. Sands...... Home Squadron..... ..........1850 George F. Pearson... East Indies Norfolk ..............1842* William S. Young... Philadelphia... NOTE. In addition to the vessels enumerated in this table, there are six steamers connected with the Revenue and Coast Survey Service; also, the five screw frigates now building, viz: The Brooklyn, Hartford, Richmond, Lancaster and Pensacola, each of two thousand tuns. These vessels, when in service, together with the seven screw sloops of war and the side-wheel steamer authorized to be constructed by the Thirty-Fifth Congress, will form an important addition to the navy of the United States. XIII.-POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CAL.* Number of post-offices in California, 315; length of routes, 3,084 miles; cost of transportation for fiscal year, ending June 30, 1857, $143,797; expenses, same period, $359,854; receipts, same period, $256,974. RATES OF POSTAGE-DOMESTIC. Letters for each half-ounce, under three thousand miles, prepaid, three cents; over three thousand miles, pre-paid, ten cents. All letters must be pre-paid by stamps, or inclosed in stamp-envelopes, or they will not be forwarded. Transient Newspapers, Periodicals, Circulars, etc.,-to any part of the United States, not weighing over three ounces, one cent-and one cent for each additional ounce. Books-pre-paid, not weighing over four pounds, two cents per ounce. All fractions over the ounce being counted as an additional ounce. Newspapers and Periodicals-not exceeding one and one-half ounces in weight, when paid quarterly in advance-daily, per quarter, twenty-two and three-quarter cents; six times per week, nineteen and one-half cents; triweekly, nine and three-quarter cents; semi-weekly, six and one-half cents; weekly, three and one-quarter cents; semi-monthly, one and one-half cents; monthly, three-quarter cents. When sent out of the State these rates are doubled. Small newspapers, published monthly, or oftener, and pamphlets not containing more than sixteen octavo pages, in packages of eight ounces or over, one-half cent per ounce. Weekly newspapers, within the county where published, free. Quarterly payments, in advance, may be made either where published or received. RATES OF POSTAGE-FOREIGN. NOTE. The figures following the name of each country, are intended to represent: first, the postage in cents, on letters weighing one-half ounce or under; and second, the postage on single newspapers. North America.-British Possessions, Pacific Coast, 3, 1. Canada, 15, 1. Mexico, 10, 2. Central America, 44, 8. South America.-Bolivia, Chili or Ecuador, 34, 6. New Grenada, 18, 6— except Panama and Aspinwall, which are, 20, 6. Peru, 22, 6. Europe.-Belgium, 26, 6. Denmark, 35, 6. France, 15 per one-quarter ounce, 2. German States, 30, 6. Great Britain, 29, 2. Greece, 42, 6. Holland, 26, 6. Norway, 46, 6. Portugal, 73, 6. Russia, 37, 6. Sardinia, 38, 6. Spain, 78, 6. Sweden, 42, 6. Switzerland, 35, 6. Turkey, 30, 6. Tuscany, 35, 6. East Indies and Islands of the Pacific.—Australia, Sandwich Islands, Manila, China, Java, New South Wales, New Zealand, Victoria, etc., etc. (by sailing vessels) 1, 1. *For List of Post-Offices, Officers and Clerks, see pp. 58-63. |