not hazarding much to say that no vessel can be made to float and carry armor capable of resisting a projectile of this weight. It may become advantageous to cover all the guns in forts, substituting another tier of casemates for the top tier, now usually left uncovered. The general method of construction (plan) of sea-coast forts is so extremely plain that no change can be made therein with any promise of advantage or economy. It is only on the land sides that our forts are in anywise complicated, or that combinations of principles are applied, and these only for defense. On their sea or water fronts, for action against vessels, the case is best satisfied by the simplest possible plan, and this, of course, is the most economical.

The application of steam to vessels a number of years since gave them advantages never before possessed. But these were neutralized by simply increasing the number of guns in our shore batteries.

The increased dimensions of ordnance give vessels but little advantage in a contest with forts, while they add greatly to the power of the forts against vessels attempting to pass them. The covering vessels with iron armor enables them to repel projectiles of moderate size, but it is already being seen, in experiments, that iron heavier than a vessel can carry can be penetrated, broken, and smashed in by projectiles, the ordnance for which can be maneuvered in forts without difficulty.

The possible necessity for covering the exposed faces of forts with iron has been in view for years past, and, as before said, the application has been made so far as it has been deemed in any degree necessary.

The great importance of preparing ordnance of very large calibers for use in or sea-board forts has been urgently presented by me to the authorities several times within some fifteen or twenty years. Steps are at least being taken for its provision. I can only express again my earnest conviction that it is indispensable to our protection against naval enterprises that this ordnance be supplied in ample quantities speedily; and that when ready it be transported too the forts for which it is designed, and there placed in readiness for use at any day, with sufficient quantities of munitions for the service of the guns. With our fortifications so armed and manned by troops having some knowledge, easily acquired, of their duties in the service of the batteries, I feel confident that our cities, naval establishments, and harbors defended by these works will continue to be secure against naval attacks.

It is not intended by what has been said to dispense with the employment of floating defense for our coasts at the different points where their use is advantageous. There are several places where our reliance must be mainly, if not entirely, upon that kind of defense; and at many other places, as has often been stated by the Engineer Department, floating artillery, especially while our system of permanent works is incomplete, must be largely availed of. War is daily becoming more costly. Success is more and more a question of expenditure. Therefore it is the more indispensable that our military expenditures be carefully made in such a way as to secure the greatest result for the means laid out.

It has been stated above that fifteen or twenty very large guns can be mounted and thoroughly covered ashore for the same cost that two can be put afloat. But besides this, the yearly cost of maintaining the permanent shore battery will be trivial, whole the expense of maintaining and repairing the vessel will be very great; and after all, the vessel will be worn out in twenty years or less, while the fort will be as good fifty years hence as when it was built. Therefore, while