have been selected, one on the east side of the Isthmus, at Chiriqui
Lagoon, in the Caribbean Sea, and the other on the Pacific coast, at
the Bay of Golfito. The only safe harbors, sufficiently commodious, on
the Isthmus are at these points, and the distance between them is less
than 100 miles. The report of the Secretary of the Navy concludes with
valuable suggestions with respect to the building up of our merchant
marine service, which deserve the favorable consideration of Congress.

The report of the Postmaster-General exhibits the continual growth and
the high state of efficiency of the postal service. The operations
of no Department of the Government, perhaps, represent with greater
exactness the increase in the population and the business of the
country. In 1860 the postal receipts were $8,518,067.40; in 1880 the
receipts were $33,315,479.34. All the inhabitants of the country are
directly and personally interested in having proper mail facilities,
and naturally watch the Post-Office very closely. This careful
oversight on the part of the people has proved a constant stimulus
to improvement. During the past year there was an increase of 2,134
post-offices, and the mail routes were extended 27,177 miles, making
an additional annual transportation of 10,804,191 miles. The
revenues of the postal service for the ensuing year are estimated
at $38,845,174.10, and the expenditures at $42,475,932, leaving a
deficiency to be appropriated out of the Treasury of $3,630,757.90.

The Universal Postal Union has received the accession of almost all
the countries and colonies of the world maintaining organized postal
services, and it is confidently expected that all the other countries
and colonies now outside the union will soon unite therewith, thus
realizing the grand idea and aim of the founders of the union of
forming, for purposes of international mail communication, a single
postal territory, embracing the world, with complete uniformity
of postal charges and conditions of international exchange for all
descriptions of correspondence. To enable the United States to do its
full share of this great work, additional legislation is asked by the
Postmaster-General, to whose recommendations especial attention is
called.

The suggestion of the Postmaster-General that it would be wise to
encourage, by appropriate legislation, the establishment of American
lines of steamers by our own citizens to carry the mails between our
own