It is gratifying to know that the engineering profession has not been forgotten when honors have been conferred on distinguished men; and among others may be named Sir William Fairbairn, Sir John Rennie, Sir Peter Fairbairn, Sir Charles Fox, Sir William Armstrong, Sir Joseph Whitworth, Sir John Hawkshaw, Sir John Coode, Sir William Thomson, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, Sir Charles Hartley, Sir Charles Bright, Sir James Ramsden, Sir John Anderson, Sir George Elliot, Sir Daniel Gooch, Sir Henry Tyler, Sir Samuel Canning, Sir Edward Reed, and Sir Frederick Bramwell. With many noble examples before us, and with signs of an improvement in many branches of commerce, he trusted that the latter part of the present century will, with somewhat greater exertion of thought and enterprise on our parts, be marked, not only by numerous small improvements, but by many substantial inventions for the good of mankind. * * * * * THE HOBOKEN DRAINAGE PROBLEM. Our thriving neighbor, Hoboken, just across the Hudson River, has a large and vitally important problem to solve. Of the 720 acres within the city limits, 270 acres lie at a considerable height above the river and constitute what are known as the knoll or uplands of Hoboken. Between this low ridge and Palisade Ridge lie 450 acres of marsh lands or meadows, 140 acres of which have already been built upon. The marsh is about half a mile wide, and something like a mile and a half long, extending southward into Jersey City. The surface is a network of matted vegetation and roots perhaps five feet deep, and under that lies a mass of blue clay or river silt 100 feet or more in depth. The original tidal flow over these marsh lands has been obstructed by viaducts for railroads and streets, leaving only two natural outlets, a sluice way at Fifteenth street on the north, and on the south a basin constructed by the D. L. & W. R. R., 100 feet wide, and 2,300 feet long. The average level of the marsh land is three feet above mean low water and a foot and a half below mean high water. In the part built upon the streets are but two feet above mean high water. During long easterly and northerly storms, especially at times of high spring tides, the level of the water in the Hudson is often such as to cover the meadows even at low tide; and on several occasions the water at high tide has been 4½ feet above the level of the meadows, and a foot or more above the established grade of the streets. The problem is to drain these marsh lands so as to make them properly habitable and to protect them from invasion by high tides and storm waters.