must be included in any considerable extension of the prison, or at all events coming too near it for prudence in a sanitary point of view. I think it will now be but a short time before the smallpox will be brought completely under control. Until this is the case, however, it would be imprudent to send more prisoners here. I have suggested to the commandant the propriety of dividing off a number of barracks from the prison at large, in which, when more prisoners do arrive, they may be kept in quarantine till it be ascertained that no contagion exists among them.

Respectfully submitted.

A. M. CLARK,

Surgeon and Acting Medical Inspector of Prisoners of War.

ADDENDUM. -Since writing the above it has been reported to me that on the ground selected for the new grave-yard the soil has been found to be of insufficient depth for the purpose. Accordingly a fresh selection has been made about 1,000 yards east of the present ground, and at about the same distance from the south side of the island, which will answer all the requirements.

A. M. CLARK,

Surgeon and Acting Medical Inspector of Prisoners of War.

[Sub-inclosure.]

ASSISTANT QUARTERMASTER'S OFFICE,

Rock Island, Ill., February 25, 1864.

Brigadier General M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: The water-works and sinks at Rock Island prison barracks have been found by experience to be inadequate. Heretofore no provision has been made for sewerage or systematic drainage. The prison has capacity for 12,000 men. The average number in prison from the date of occupancy until now has been between 3,000 and 5,000. There are now 8,000 or 9,000 in prison. Already the twelve large sinks have been filled and the privies removed three times. In the spring the camp will unavoidably be muddy and filthy. In the summer the stench caused by excrements will be in sufferable and will certainly engender disease. I have caused a primary survey to beamed of the ground, and after careful consideration I have the honor to respectfully recommend the construction of water-works and sewerage upon the following plan, which has been examined by Colonel A. J. Johnson, commandant of the prison, by Dr. A. M. Clark, acting medical inspector of prisoners of war, and by other competent persons, who agree that the work proposed is necessary and the plan adequate and as economical as any that will meet the indispensable requirements of the prison and garrison. Directly south of the 130-foot avenue and 200 feet distant from the fence, the ridge running east and west in the rear of the prison is forty feet above the level of the river at low-water mark and ten and fifteen feet higher than any point where water will be required. Upon this ridge it is proposed to build a round reservoir of stone 150 feet in diameter and fifteen feet high, which is estimated to have capacity for enough water to last 15,000 men ten days at an allowance per day to each man of fifteen gallons for all purposes. Through the center of the 130-foot avenue it is proposed to dig a sewer leading into the river, and over which is to be a line of double privies extending from the 90-foot avenue north to within thirty feet of the prison fence.