WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, June 28, 1876.
The PRESIDENT:
SIR: I have the honor to return herewith Senate bill No. 692, "to amend chapter 166 of the laws of the second session of the Forty-third Congress," and beg to invite your attention to the report of the Chief of Engineers dated the 27th instant, copy inclosed, and for the reasons stated in said report it is believed the bill should not become a law.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J.D. CAMERON,
Secretary of War.
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, June 27, 1876.
Respectfully returned to the honorable the Secretary of War.
"An act to aid in the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, in the State of Wisconsin," approved March 3, 1875, contains the following clause:
"In case any lands or other property is now or shall be flowed or injured by means of any part of the works of said improvement heretofore or hereafter constructed, for which compensation is now or shall become legally owing, and in the opinion of the officer in charge it is not prudent that the dam or dams be lowered, the amount of such compensation may be ascertained in like manner," etc.
The dams referred to in the above clause are at the outlets of Lake Winnebago, known as the Neenah or Menasha channels of the Lower Fox River.