The Foreign Office at Vienna to Kasson, December 13, 1879

The Foreign Office at Vienna to Mr. Kasson.

As is known to the honorable legation, Mr. James B. Eads, a civil engineer from Saint Louis, employed at the regulation of the Mississippi River, was ordered by the Government of the United States of America to study the water-works and river regulations in Austria-Hungary, especially to visit Theiss and Szegedin. In September last Mr. Eads was presented personally through the secretary of legation, Mr. John F. Delaplaine, and a letter of recommendation to the royal Hungarian minister, President de Tisza, was given him. At the same time the ministry of foreign affairs requested the imperial and royal ministry of commerce to give Mr. Eads such books, papers, and plans of water-works constructed in this part of the empire as would be of use to his high government. As we now hear that the civil engineer, Mr. Eads, has, after finishing his studies, returned to his country, the ministry of foreign affairs has the honor to transmit to the honorable legation the following papers, which it has just itself received, with the request to send them to Mr. Eads, viz:

• A map of the river Danube, from Stein to Theben, in Lower Austria, showing the water-works constructed up to the end of 1878.
• Report and motions of the committee appointed in 1868 by the commission for the regulation of the Danube.
• “The Regulation of the Danube near Vienna,” published May 30, 1875, at the time of the solemn opening of the navigation in the new river-bed.
• “The Regulation of the Danube near Vienna,” a Lecture delivered the 18th March, 1876, before the Society of Austrian Architects and Engineers, by the Chevalier Gustav von Wex.
• “Collection of Reflections on the running, blocking, and breaking up of the ice in the river Danube and in the Danube Canal at Vienna in the months of January and February, 1876,” by Baron Wm. von Engerth.