7- has been keen, and much of the work has gone at low prices and been performed by older dredges fully depreciated in their owners' hands. So much for a general review of our company and what it is doing. Let us turn now to the profit picture which is, after all, the scorecard which measures the effectiveness of your efforts. Our profits have increased rather consistently during the last 10 years and the 1960 rate was over twice that of 4 years earlier. In trying to surpass the earnings of 1960, we started 1961 under a handicap. In 1960 our uranium earnings were higher than we had any right to expect under our A.E.C contract because the custom ore that we were obligated to take from others failed to materialize and we were given the privilege of substituting our own ore in its place, thereby earning an additional profit which has been unavailable to us during the current year. Also the first half of our 1961 fiscal year was a time of general business recession which had its impact on various aspects of our business as well. Despite these difficulties, I am pleased to be able to report to you that our earnings this year are running slightly ahead of those of last year and should continue to do so for the balance of the year. Here again we see the advantages of diversification, for this year it is our construction activities which are the source of improved earnings that have more than offset the decline in the results from our uranium activities. The sharp improvement in construction is the result of a combination of a contract portfolio relatively free from unprofitable work, a high rate of construction operations with our equipment efficiently utilized, and greater comparative benefits from claims and price adjustments on work performed in prior periods.