livered from any ship or vessel without a proper permit for that purpose.

Surveyors at certain ports to which no Collector or Naval Officer is appointed, perform all the duties which would be required of a Collector.

Every Collector, Naval Officer, and Surveyor is authorized, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, in case of his sickness or unavoidable absence, to exercise and perform his functions, powers, and duties by deputy duly constituted under his hand and seal.

DUTIES OF APPRAISERS.

By all reasonable ways and means in their power to ascertain, estimate, and appraise the true and actual market value and wholesale price, any invoice or affidavit to the contrary notwithstanding, of merchandise imported into the United States at the time of exportation, in the principal markets of the country, whence the same has been imported into the United States, and the number of such yards, parcels, or quantities, and such actual market value, or the wholesale price of every of them, as the case may require.

Included in this is the duty to decide whether the merchandise corresponds with the invoice in character.

It is the duty of Appraisers to ascertain these facts, and report upon them to the Collectors.

The following will illustrate the practice in the Appraiser's department at the port of New York, and so far as applicable the same is true as to the other large ports. At the smaller ports there is less business, and of course less machinery; the Collector or his representative performing the necessary duties of appraise

ment.

Invoices of merchandise are received in the Appraiser's department from the custom-house (Collector's department) twice each day. They are receipted for by the invoice clerk, who selects and charges them to the different divisions, according to the merchandise which is covered by them; the several classes of merchandise, goods, etc., being distributed to the divisions for examination and appraisal, as follows:

First Division.-Informal appraisements; personal effects; sample office packages. Seizures. All goods on which allowance is claimed for damage on the voyage of importation; packed packages; passenger's baggage; household effects.

Second Division.-Antiquities; bronzes; clocks; fancy goods of every description; small and fancy manufactures of alabaster, glass, marble, porcelain, and spar; fancy boxes; gold-beater's skin; gold and silver ware; jewelry of all kinds; lithographic stones; mosaics; musical instruments; opticals; optical, philosophical, and photographic apparatus; precious stones; regalias; toys; watches; watch materials; watchmakers' tools; type; engravings; artists' materials; books; paintings; paper; printed matter; ink; photographs; sealing-wax ; stationery; works of art.

Third Division.-Buttons of silk and worsted; embroideries, except of gold and silver; hatters' plush; laces and lace goods of every description; ladies' silk wearing apparel; silk, raw, tram, and organzine, and all manufactures of silk; trimmings; ribbons.

Fourth Division.-Bagging; cotton gutta-percha and India-rubber cloth and webbing; manufactures of cotton, flax, grass, hemp, jute, or of which either of these articles shall be a component of chief value, except carpets, carpetings, mats, matting, and oil-cloth; rope and cordage; thread of linen or cotton; twine; willow-ware; ladies' linen or cotton wearing apparel.

Fifth Division.-Bunting; corsets; feathers, crude and ornamental; flowers, artificial or natural, dyed and dried; gloves; hair braids; hats; hosiery; knit goods; millinery goods; parasols; straw braids; umbrellas; worsted goods of every description, except French worsted dress goods.

Sixth Division.-Coir; esparto and sisal grass; fibre; flax; flocks; hair of all kinds; hemp; istle; jute; shoddy; wool, and all materials which enter into or form a component part of textile fabrics, except cotton and silk; bristles; canes; unmanufactured carpets; carpeting; furs, and all manufactures of fur; mats; matting; oil-cloth; palm leaf; rattan ; whalebone; whalebone for stretchers; woollen cloth, and all manufactures of wool; French worsted dress goods; upholstery goods; baskets; willow-ware.

Seventh Division. -Anatomical preparations; apothecaries' glass-ware; asphaltum; bituminous substances; brimstone; cardamom-seeds; chalk; chemicals; clay; corks; cork-tree bark; dextrine; drugs; dye-stuffs; earths; extracts; gelatine; gums; gypsum; isinglass; leeches; lemon peel; limes; medicines; mustardseeds; paints; perfumery; plaster of

Paris; printing ink; pumice-stone; quicksilver; resinous substances; saltpetre; soap for toilet; specimens of botany and natural history; sponge; spunk; squills; surgical instruments, except of steel; varnishes; wax,-bees' and vegetable; water colors, moist; vinegar; mineral water; vanilla beans.

hide cuttings; hoofs; horns; honey; ice; india-rubber, unmanufactured; ivory; ivory nuts; junk; laths; leather; lumber; melado; molasses; mother-of-pearl; oakum; paper stock; Parian and porcelain ware; polishing stones; rags; shells; skins, not furs; slate; spars; spiling; stone for building; stone monuments; tiles; veneering; wood, cabinet and dye; furniture.

Ninth Division.-Bronze powders; coach hardware; cutlery; Dutch metal; emery; gold and silver leaf; hardware; harness; iron, and manufactures of iron; machinery; metals; mica; minerals; needles; ores; pen tips and holders; pins; saddlery; steel, and manufactures of steel; steel pens; jewsharps; buscs; asbestos; gold and silver galloons.

Tenth Division.-Ale; beverages; blacking cocoa; coffee; cordials; fireworks; food; fruits; grains; grease; groceries, except molasses and sugar; gunpowder; hops; malt; nuts, not drugs; oil, except essential and medicinal; plants; porter; seeds; soap, not toilet; soap stock; sopaline; spirituous liquors; statuary; tea; wafers; wines; lemon and lime juice; cigars; cigarettes; snuff; tobacco.

The invoices are then sent to the divisions and receipted for. They are then charged respectively to the examiners, who are experts in the specialties covered by the invoices.

When a package ordered by the Collector to be delivered to the Appraiser for examination is received from the vessel, it is opened in the presence of the examiner, and compared with the invoice as to quality, quantity, value, and nature of material.

ENTRY OF MERCHANDISE.

Merchandise intended to be imported into the United States should be consigned to some person at the port of importation, by whom it must be entered. Entry must be made within fifteen days after the arrival of the merchandise.

The entry, which must be made in duplicate, must specify the name of the vessel in which, and the port or place from which such merchandise is imported, the particular marks, numbers, denomination, and prime cost, including charges of each particular package or parcel whereof the entry consists, or, if in bulk, the quantity, quality, and prime cost, including charges thereof, particularly specifying the species of money in which the invoice thereof is made out, and must be signed and sworn to by the person making it.

The person making an entry must also produce to the Collector, and to the Naval Officer, if there is one, the original invoices of the goods, or the documents received in lieu of or concerning them, with the bills of lading.

The Collector of Customs, by himself or through a clerk or other officer, jointly with the Naval Officer, or his representative, where there is a Naval Officer, or alone where there is none, makes a gross estimate of the amount of duties on the merchandise to which the entry relates, which estimate he notes on the face of the entry, and upon the payment of the sum thus estimated he issues a permit for the landing and delivery of the goods. which permit must be countersigned by the Naval Officer.