nera the beach; the rear of the island is marshy and is divided from Edisto by a creek. A causeway which once connected it with Edisto had been destroyed, and it had not probably been visited for months.

I selected a sand-hill over 20 feet high at Bay Point, and estimated that a tower upon it 35 feet high would communicate with both stations, so I directed the engineers to build such an one.

There was a great quantity of lumber obtaiinable from a small fort (never finished) built by the rebels before our capture of Port Royal. The fort was lined throughtout and floored with planks; even the traverses faced with planks, and a quantity unused lay outside. The frame was made that afternoon, and at night the party was taken on board the steamer, as we had no force for pickets.

We again disembarked at daylight on the 26th, and I sent the steamer to Botany Bay to bring down Lieutenant Morrill to take charge of the new station. The steamer returned at 2 p. m., and at taht time the station was finished-a perfect little tower, amde in ten working hours, and from it I could see all of Otter Island and about 40 feet of Botany Bay tower. Lieutenant Morrill having no signal apparatus or supplies, I let him go to Hilton Head to obtain them, and on the 27th he started back from there, I having made arrangmeents with Captain Dutch, of the Kingfisher, to send a boat to Saint Helena village to take him to Big Bay Island. Mean time the Peconic went to Stono to get rations for the parties, and I remained at Hilton head to communicate through.

Peconic returned November 30, and I went with her to Saint Helena village, where I found Lieutenant Morrill, it having been too rought for a boat to cross Saint Helena Sound. I took him on board and stopped a Otter Island, and took a detachment from Lieutenant Jones' party of the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers, and landed them at Big Bay Island on the 1st of December, and left Lieutenant Morrill calling Botany Bay, and returned to Hilto Head to open communication through, if possible. On arriving at Hilton Head on the 2nd, I found that my orders for having a station bult on Kiawah had not been executed. I then sent an order to Lieutenant Hawkins to got to Kiawah and have a platform made sufficient to work from, and remain there. I went to Saint Helena tower, and tested line thoroughly to Hilton Head and to Botany Bay, and found that it was all working well. On the 3rd, I left Saint Helena village on Peconic, and stopped at all stations, and on the 4th, landed on Kiawah, and found the sttion there not what was wanted, but so it would work part of the time. As headquters could not be seen from Kiawah for want of sufficient elevevation, I put an officer at lower end of Folly Island. From this date until the 8th, I tired constantly to work through but found great difficulty on account of the Kiawah station being too far from Botany Bay for so low a station. I did get some messages through, but no satisfactorily, so I went over and selected a place 2 miles nearer Botany Bay. I had a new station built there 30 feet high. This station was finished on the 12th, and communication was opened through, and I reported to he major-general commanding that the line was ready for duty. He sent a message to General Seymour, at Hilton Head, and as General Seymour did not reply for some hours, the reply started just at night and a fog prevented its getting through until next day.

The line continued to work well with this exception, that during cold weather it is a general occurence that after sundown the condensation