ary, 1818, and to which we shall more par ticularly refer in the course of our remarks. This report only confirms the correctness of all those which preceded it, and only proves that the estimates were rather too high than too low. Sufficient it will be here to remark, that from experience and subsequent observation, the grand canal will even cost less than the commissioners and the state government have calculated. This we shall prove and illustrate.

"We will now advert to some of the great advantages which must result to the state of New-York, to the western country, and to the nation at large from the grand western canal.

"We have before taken a view of the principal advantages that must result to our union, and to our republican institutions, by attaching the various sections of the country more immediately together, by means of internal communication. Our great canal, in this respect, will produce a train of exclusive and permanent benefits, which could not, from local causes, pertain to any simiJar undertakings within the scope of ourselves or of the nation. When you connect the Hudson with the Lakes, by such a communication, you virtually place the Atlantic seaboard and the great western interior by the side of each other. From the ocean, you can pass through this whole chain of inland seas, navigable to vessels of the largest burden. Nor should we stop here-New-York and New-Orleans could be brought, in point of intercourse, near each other. At trifling expense, and with no great effort of labour, you could open a communication by water, through which a vast commerce could be carried on from lake Michigan to the Illinois river, which empties into the Mississippi above St. Louis, and traverses nearly the whole extent of that rising and fertile territory, which will soon be admitted as a state among the other sisters of the union. Even in high waters, there is now a navigation for small craft, between the waters of the Illinois and the southern extremity of lake Michigan through Chicago creek.

"The Miami of lake Erie, and the tributary streams of lake Michigan, near the bead waters of the Illinois, could easily be united, and a direct channel from lake Erie into the Mississippi thus be opened. It may also be observed, that the sources of the Miami of lake Erie, and the head waters of the Wabash, have about the same level, are near each other, and could easily be united without encountering the least obstruction. By this means, a communication could be opened with the Mississippi, through one of the most charming and fertile countries that the eye of man has ever visited, or his hands ever improved. Another pas

*Illinois is already admitted by act of congress, but having only 40,000 people, she cannot immediately become a state.

sage from the lakes to the Mississippi could be effected, by uniting the waters of the Miami of lake Erie and the Miami of the Ohio, whose waters, at the sources, are nearly on the same level. That some of these channels will shortly be opened, no rational man can doubt, who recollects the character of that population who inhabit the country they will enrich. Three other great canals could easily unite the Hudson and the Ohio, by means of lake Erie. Firstly-by means of the Sandusky and Sciota rivers. The former which empties into the lake, and the latter into the Ohio, have their waters from the same swamp. Their junction would hardly cost an effort. The second would be by uniting the Muskingum and the Cayuga rivers. The former empties into the Ohio, one hundred and seventy miles below Pittsburgh, and the latter turns its waters int lake Erie. Siz miles of canal would unite them, and we believe that a company now actually exists to execute this purpose. The third communication would be between lake Erie and the Alleghany branch of the Ohio. There are two ways by which this object could be effected-the first by joining their waters through French creek, which would want about sixteen miles of canal-the other through lake Chetoughe to the Alleghany. A considerable navigation is now carried on through this lake. The people on the borders of French creek are very ardent in the project of a canal, that would unite the waters of the lakes with the Ohio at Pittsburgh, and are themselves capable of doing it, in a single season, if they are endued with that noble enterprise, which se generally distinguishes their western brethren. What systems of internal trade and navigation may yet spring from the completion of our great undertaking, even after we pass the shores of Michigan, is left for future enterprise and future events to determine. The mighty waters beyond this lake are yet to be brought into requisition, for the great purposes of national grandeur and individual convenience.*

"Pause for a moment, and consider the mighty population which will yet cluster on the shores of this chain of lakes, and the unnumbered streams which roll their tributary bounties into their bosoms! The great western world which reposes upon their wide-stretched shores, needs no description of ours to enhance its value in the estimation of the American people. It will yet contain a population unequalled by any in the world for industry, enterprise, and independence; a population bound together by those ties of union and interest, created and fortified by a grand system of internal improvements, of which the great western

"On the ease and practicability of uniting the lakes with the western waters, see Mr. Gallatin's Report, and Beaujour's Travels in the United States.,

be taken as at one lock only upon each flight, because the lockage at the upper lock supplies the lockage at every succeeding lock; the loss therefore takes place entirely at the upper level; the lost water being received and retained by the lower level, except the canal communicate with a river, or another descending canal; but the amount of loss depends entirely on the capacity of the locks, the height of the lift, and the number of vessels passed.

Now, in order to attain some idea of the various quantities of water necessary to supply each of the foregoing losses, let us suppose three canals, the first being fifty miles in length, forty-five feet in breadth, having two flights of locks, and a trade of twenty-four vessels per day;

Evaporation at 1-10th of an inch per day,

the second twenty miles in length, forty-five feet broad, and having two flights of locks, and a trade of forty vessels per day; the third eight miles in length, forty-five feet in breadth, having one flight of locks, and a trade of eighty vessels per day: the locks in all cases being eightysix feet long, fourteen feet six inches wide, and seven feet fall.*

Take the loss by evaporation (according to Mr. Smeaton) at one-tenth of an inch in depth per diem, in a hot summer's day, in England.

Take the loss by soakage at threefourths of the evaporation.

Take the leakage at two locks per diem on each flight-the account will then stand thus:

Soakage at 3-4ths of eva

poration,

Leakage, at two locks per

day on each flight,

Trade as above,

From this statement it appears that in the first canal the loss by evaporation is less than one-sixth; the loss by soakage less than one-eighth; the loss by leakage less than one-eighteenth; and the loss by lockage two-thirds of the total loss.

In the second canal the loss by evaporation is less than one-twentieth; the loss by soakage one-twenty-seventh; the loss by leakage one-twenty-third; and the loss by lockage six-sevenths of the total loss. In the third canal the loss by evaporation is about one-forty-seventh; the loss by soakage about one-sixty-second; the loss by leakage about one forty-second; and the loss by lockage rather more than fifteensixteenths of the total loss. The loss of lockage water will be somewhat effected by the direction of the trade; for example, if the trade be ascending only, say in 35 ton cargoes, the first canal will sustain an additional daily loss of 30,240 cubic

from the lower level; the average loss however, of an equal ascending and descending trade, notwithstanding these circumstances, still remains the same.

743,498

feet; i. c. 24 vessels of 35 tons each, at 36 feet per ton; the second canal 50,400, i. e. 40 vessels of 35 tons burthen, at 36 feet per ton; and the third canal 50,400, i. e. 40 barges of 31 tons, at 36 feet per ton. If the trade be wholly descending the loss will be diminished by the above quantitics; and if the trade be neither wholly ascending, nor wholly descending, then the waste will be regulated by the balance only, being increased if the balance be in favour of the ascending, and diminished if it be in favour of the descending trade.

The waste of lockage water may be considerably increased or diminished by making the locks of great or small lifts, but experience seems to have proved that locks with greater or smaller lifts than from six to eight feet are inconvenient ; the first requiring an excessive waste of water, the second occasioning a great impediment to the trade by increasing the nuinber of locks to be passed.

From this explanation it appears that

*These are the exact dimensions of the locks on the Grand Junction, England.

even in a canal of very considerable extent, and carrying but a moderate trade, the loss of lockage water is greater by far than that from any other cause; in a canal of moderate extent it bears a still greater proportion to the whole waste; while in a canal of short length, and carrying a considerable traffic, the waste from every other cause is of trifling account, compared to the immense loss from lockage.

It is true indeed that in different canals the circumstances affecting the quantum of waste from each of the four causes first mentioned, are liable to so many fluctuations as to render it impossible to determine a maximum or minimum; but the proportions may always be found upon the principles just explained, and it will almost uniformly appear that in a canal, the trade of which is sufficient to render it an object of importance, the loss of lockage water is by far the most considerable of its losses.

Having thus briefly pointed out the causes which produce the waste of water in canals, we offer a few observations on the supply.

The loss by evaporation and soakage, as has been explained, takes place over the whole surface of the canal; the supply necessary on that account may therefore be made at each level respectively, or at the summit level, from whence it may be allowed to descend to the other levels; or some of the levels may be supplied from an upper level, while the remainder receive separate supplies, as may be most convenient.

The loss from leakage must be supplied entirely at the summit, because the leakage at the upper lock supplies the leakage of every succeeding lock on the same flight.

The loss from lockage must also be supplied at the summit, because the lockage of the upper lock supplies the lockage of every succeeding lock on the same flight.

Hence it appears that the least important losses take place in situations that must easily admit a supply, because the higher levels lose no more from evaporation and soakage than the proportion which their surfaces bear to that of the whole canal, while the losses from leakage and lockage on the whole canal, are sustained entirely at the summit level; so that not only is the loss of lockage water by far the most considerable of its losses (the leakage being of minor importance), but it takes place, and therefore must be re-supplied, at that part of

the canal (the summit level) where there is the least facility to obtain a supply.

The difficulty of procuring water in elevated situations is in England too well known to require illustration; it rarely happens, however, but that some may be procured, though not sufficient to supply at the summit levels the consumption of a flourishing canal-at the lower levels indeed water is often found in abundance, but in those situations is of little use, except steam engines be employed to raise it to the summit, because the great supply is not required in any other situation. If, however, some convenient means were devised to enable vessels to pass with a small expenditure of water (a grand desideratum in canals) the locks situated between the summit, and that level where water can be readily obtained, a comparatively diminutive supply at the summit would be sufficient to support a very extensive trade. The same means, if adopted throughout, might indeed supersede the necessity of extensive artificial reservoirs; but as a canal descends, the expense of obtaining water is small, and therefore in such situations the present system may be persevered in with advantage.

It also frequently happens that some particular part of a caual has a much greater trade than another. In such case that part may not improperly, with respect to that superior traffic, be consid ered as a separate canal, of which the losses of water by evaporation, soakage, and leakage, are already supplied, but, nevertheless, having to seek a compensation for the extra loss of lockage, consequent to that superior trade. In such case the preservation of lockage water is of singular importance, because in all probability every ordinary mode of supply has already been anticipated.

Sometimes also the water of mills, or streams, are intercepted to supply canals; the proprietors of the canals so supplied being compelled to return the water by steam engines, at a great expense. In such cases, to preserve the lockage water would be of great advantage, as it might frequently supersede the necessity of an immense annual charge besides preventing, in a great degree, the frequent litigations unavoidably ensuing from complicated and opposing interests.

To point out the numerous other instances in which it may be important to preserve lockage water, and to enter into the reasonings connected with every case, would surpass the moderate bounds prescribed in this instance. We shall there