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Les diagrammes suivants IHustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 «w< RIVAL ROUTES FROM THE WEST. — ■ — An Extract from the Report of Alexander Berkley^ Canal Com- missioner of the State of New York, March, iSy^. % ^ INCHKASED CARRYING fACILITIES — CHAMPLAIN SHIP CANAL. ) The immense productions of the great west and north west are largely in ex- cess of all existing means ot conveyance to tide water, and the constantly in- creasing yield of this rapidly devolop- ing reg'on v\\\ render thom daily more insufticient to m^et the ever growing wants of a trade and commerce, whose magnitude and colossal proportions d^arf the foreign oomm'^rce of the country into insignificance. The necessity, therefore, of making adequate provision for their transpor- tation is apparent, and the quest i>n is one of vital importance to the people of this state, whoae past prosperity is due to the control of this great business and whose future is so largely depend- ent upon it. It is exciting the attention of the general government and of all the great states interested, and the past year a United States Senate Committee, com- posed of its ablest and leading mem- bers, visited in person all the proposed routes, and collected a mass of evidence and statistic? in relation to this matter, of great value, which are embodied in two large volumes published by the present Congress, and to which I shall have oooasion to refer. The need of enlarged faoliities is con- ceded — the mode is yet undetermined, but its decision will be speedy, and while ihsre is yet time the people of this great state should be awake to a sense of the imminence of the danger threatening them of losing the internal tnMle, which carries with it of necessity the external commerce of the country, and providing suitable facilities, avert the calamity,, The empire state gained her proud cognomen from the wisdom and fore- sight of the great statesmen who were early in her history called to the helm of state to guide her destinies, and the great canal system which was the re- bult of their broad and en'arged con- ceptions and cpabilities of this great country, and ,. e proper mode of their development, had scarcely been put in operatii'"*', before she assumed that leading and comminding position in the '^reat family of states t,hat she has since maintained, and thus controlling the trade of the state and nation. New York City became the great metropolis and financial centre, not only of the state, but of the nation and continent. A few years latei [1835], when the wonderful increase of business, engen- dered by the rapid peopling of the west and its immense productiveness, rendered the great channel thus pro- vided insufficient for the work of trans- porting the products of the growing west to the market, the persons to whom were entrusted the control of the ptate, showed equal sagacity, and proved th3m8elves equal to the emerg- ency by inaugurating the enlargement of the Erie Canal, which delayed and embarrassed by its enemies, was not completed until 1862. These wise and statesmen-like measures were eftectual for a long series of years, but the com- pletion of the great Canadian system of canals with corresponding river im- provements, and also the wonderful ex- 2 tension of the railroads, commencing about 1850, and culminating in the for- mation of great trunk lines, have open- ed new routes which have been gradually and insidiously divert- ing, trade, and. commerce from the^ old ^ecustomed chaauels id Toufees b9th north and south of ue, untit now this diversion has assumed such alarming proportions as to seriously, menace the prosperity and future wel- fare of the state. The ; seriousness oi" tie danger of this diversion is shown by the fact that while ther^. is positive insufficiency of means of transit, the Erie canal is not *-^xed to the utmost of its present capacity for various reasons, chief among which, is the length of time required in the present system of towage by horse power, and which it is to be hoped the introduction of steam on the canal may speedily obviate. New York city, relying on its great natural advantages, has supinely laid back while its great rivals, Boston, Philadelphia. Baltimore and Montreal, have made gigantic and herculean efforts to draw away this immense busi- ness which has enriched aud built up this great state and its great seaport. An insignificant portion of the amount expended by Boston or Philadelphia for the purpose of attracting and secur- ing this great western traffic, would suffice to construct the proposed en- largement of the Erie and the Oswego <»nal, and the Champlain ship canal, works which are absolutely neces^^ary to the maintenance by the freat empire »tate of its present pre-eminence in the national family of slates'. The value oi' these artificial channels of commt'ice can hardly be over-esti Uiated, especially as they are the only ■competitors of the railroad?, and did they accomplish no other good than that of keeping the prices of freight at low figures, iheir value would be iaesti- mable. in the hands of the state, no railroads or corporations can combine ■with them, and unchecked raise the cast of transport to prices ruinous to the producer and oppressive to the consumer. The fallacy of the idea that canals have been entirely superseded by railroads, has bsen so ably shown bv writers of acknowledged abiUty, that I «hall not dwell upon it. -But if we do not furnish all the requisite facilities by constructing canals adapted to the exigencies of the business to be performed, we must not charge conse- quences which are the result of crimi- nal stupidity to a system which haii B0t been fairly teatad.. Deinand a{^8 causes shpply, aoci we oiay be certain that all necessary facilities will be pro- vided in some direction. Will the people of this Str»te prove themselves equal to the emergjency, .or. ^nll tl^ey see' this trdffic, so Essential to their pros- perity, borne away from them by their more energetic neighbour?? Aud once loet, these great advantages can never be regained. While it is true that the laws of commerce always gravitate towards great money centres, yeu it stiould be borne in mind that where obstacles interfere to check ihis current, new money centrv^s will be established to meet the wants of the commercial world. And let th j existing channe s of trade be once forsakeu, and »he new money centres tirmly establi hed neces- sary for the controlling and handling this trade, and all etforls to win it back will be futile. The energy, force and business pre&cience which shall success- fully divert it, will be able to keep it, and laugh at our feeble etibrts to regain the prize which we ^hAll h jve so fool- ishly allowed to slip from our rtn- gers. As pertinent to these views, and showing the present state of the carry- ing tr^de, and the danger of its diver- sion as well as the extent to which it has been already diverted, I will quote the following extrMCt from a report prepared for and adopted by the B jtt'.i- Ic board of trade, December IS, 1S74 : " Between 1S(U) and 1.S73, ilie re- ' ceiptsof graiu at Boston have more " than doubled, having increased from 4,147,752 to 8,408,658 bushels ; thotte " of grain and Hour at Montreal have. '• also nearly doubled having increased " from 10,394.454 to 13,713,5:^9 bushels; " at Pbiladelphii they have multiplied : " nearly four fold, or from 7,260,515 to " 24,949,157 bushels ; at Baltimore they '* have more than doubled, the in- " crease being from 8,197,130 to 19;- " 099 717 bushels, and tne extension of " the Billimore & Ohio roftd to Chicago '< indicates .that the future trade of " Baltimore will increase dkn rapidly aa ' mse- rimi- JBtft mis tarn pro- the I, ** that of Philadelphia; but durinjj tbe *^ same time the receipts at New York "hive only increased from 57 S09 J 05 «td 90,731 523. " ' "In other word.", while the aggre- "gate receipts of grain, etc. at the "retir competing ports of Montreal, *' Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, " have increased in seven years from " 29,999,85rto 72,231,061, and are near- " !y two and a half times aa large, as " they were at the beginning of that I '• time, those of New York have in- , " creased only one-half. The receipts "of grain and flour in the four rival •'routes have increased five times ae *• rapidly as those of New York. *' While the receipts of grain at New <* York, a sure indication of the tend- *' ency of all the rest of her trade, have " thus fallen enormously behind those "of all her rivals, the transit of the ' cereals by canal has suffered yet more "severely. It is even less tlian it was <' in 1860. The aggregate of the total *' movement of the cereals on all the *' canals in that year was 1,080, n)9 tons ; "in I8T3 it was reduced to 1,060,98], '' (See Auditor's report on tolls, trade ^' and tonnage for 1873, p. 403) In *' the intervening period it had de- " creased to 1,189,207 tons, and owes " even its present condition to t!ie ♦' reduction which has already been " made in tolls. During the season '' lately closed the cinal was in p« condi- " tion never before surpassed, and " boats were enabled o make an unus- " ual number of trip^ ; lake and canal "freights were unprecedentedly low ; " antG of the country, with-< out any jealouoy of contending routes or any local feeling bejond that of de; siring that New York shall furnish the solution oc the problem and retain the control of this immense commerce and derive the great benetits flowing from it. The great question then is, what route will furuish the greatest relief and af- forfi the greatest facilities for transpor- tation. I believe the Champlain ship canal route can do so, and that it hai8 every possible argument in its favqr, and meets every r«q\iirement. It can be constructed al less th)in oci»^-third of the cost of any of its iiv.iLs (I do not use this word in an invidious n^nse) unci in lees than one-third of the time rer quired lor the construction of any other route. And when so constructed, not- withstanding the great distance to be traversed on this route, I am satisfied, that owiug t( the very few miles of caiuil navigation (not one-third of that of the most favorable competing route) and the broad and unobfctructed water- ways of the great lakes and rivers, much less time will be required to trans- port freight i'rom any point on the great lakes to New York, than by any other water commuuication. This route would seem, therefore, to meet all the requirements, cheapness of construction, greater rapidity of I transit and lowest rates of transporta- I tiou, and has the great additional ad- i vantage that it cjuld be constructed and in full tide of successful operation years before any other route could be completed, and when so completed, would be of immensely greater size, and practically of capacity without limi- tation because it is a lake and river route with ouly a few small and short stretches of canal and those of large dimensions The first matter in considering the practicability of a route is, of course, the physicil features of the country it is designed to traverse. Now, with regard to the topography, o; the country, no one who has ex;im- ' ined the subject can fail to be impress- ed with the conviction that nature has provided this route through the irreat ehain of lakes, the 8t. Lawrence, L^ke Champlain and the Hudson river -t,he only break in the continuity of the line, being from Wood creek, the inlet of lAke Champ lain to the Budson at the point where it can be mwe go route, are Hlled with inaccuracies which require to be rectified. The admission into the reports of the Senate Comaaittee and otber ofiiciil docjmpnls gives them a currency and qu/isioffic'inl indorsement which requires their refu- tation. It is necessary to call attention to these matters before proceeding to make comparison of the merits of the various routes, in which comparison, while coriecting the erroneous state- ments and perversions of fact, we shall take the distances, lockages, etc. from the statements of the Erie and Oswego routes. Toe first misrepresentation is with regard to the length of canal to be tra- versed on the Caughnawaga route from the Wfsff because the business to be transacted is from the west, and the addition of every mile of canal would add to the i ne and necessarily the cost of transit. Now, in transporting the products of the great West to market, vessels of 1,000 tons leaving Duluth or Chicaco pass through the great lakes an:l St. Lawrence River and ari'ive at the entrance to the proposed Caughna- waga Canal having only passpd through thirtv miles of cnnal (the Wclland en larged), instead of sixty five and a naif, as stated in Mr. McAlfiine's report to Oswego Connmittee, and inserted at length in the Windom Senate Commit- tee Keporl. The inaccuracy in this case consists in including thirty-five, and a half miles ol" the S;. Lawrence River canals, which h'^ a\.f^ from l/ic west do not have to use, it being nf cessary to use them only on the return trip, owing to the force and rapidity of the current, and, therefore, th^se canals are wrong- fully used as a factor in making up a statement nf the time consumed in making a trip from the great lakes to New York. Admitting the correctness of the statement that vessels must pa^s through these canals, and still it will be demonstrated that the Caughnawaga route is the most favourable for rapidity of transit as well as excelling in all ot.h?r respects all the other existing and i propospd routes The Richelieu R'ver, I above St. Johns, i a broi.1, d^ep river and iust as free from let and hindrance in navigation as Like Cbampla'n itself. Again, in the statements furnished by the advocates of the Oswego route, the number ot locks on the Caughna- waga route is misstated. Instead of four locks the twenty-nine feet lift on Caughnawaga cinal will only require two locks. Again, on the proposed ship canal from the Hudson to Lake Champlain they state the lift from the lake to the river to be eighty-three feet eight inches, while in reality it is only twenty-eight feet, and, as proposed to be constructed, would only be thirty- nine feet, a lift which, in no event, would require over four locks, while they state the number at eight. The object of these misrepresenta- tions will appear obvious when it is stated that the time consumed in making lockages is counted as a mile of c^nal for each lock, and in this manner quite an unfair difference is made to appear to the disadvantage of the Caughnawaga route. But with all these misstatements they can scarcely give an appearance of 6 advantage to their route, bhortfr, in- deeraclioable on tills route liian by any other, and that as 1 r as ripidity of tran^'i is con- cerned the solution ol the problem in i this rftspect is by the (Jhumplain sliij) i New York with eacii other, and the St. Lawrence, it is necessary to observe that by the way of BuH-ilo and Oswego a trann/iipment must be made from the htke vessel to canal boats, and that the extra cost of canal transport aiid heavy tolls must be added to those rates, while by the way of Lake Cham- plain to New Yoik annal 7 Erie Caual to Tioy 46 Ti.tal 63 609 TBI OAvanttkyikQK oanai. r< uti. Miles. From polut in Luke Ontnrlo rpposHu OhWtno to St. i,t\vrou(.'B livi v at Kit K tf n 22 8t. Liiwrinio river nav ^uHon . St . Lawrt nee < anal nt vJKiition . (' iii on the downward trip, Taking Mr. McAlpine's viewH, that one lock is tqual to one mile in distance, we hivo OSWKGO It'H'TE TO TKOY. DiHtaiice. No, of In dis. Milrs. lorkrt. tHncc. From OswcKO. .. . lOlJ G8 25'.'j 0(!wc^r() via Sf. Lttwreucn and Chain plain t o Troy 425 22 447 Difter'Tuc lH7i Insteatl of 2';9j miU-e, as stattd ly Mrl McAlpiDo. Lockage. LotkBge, fttt. By Mr. McAlpine's Oswoko rent to Troy (309 by St. Lawrence and Cluimplnin route to Troy 229 Difforeiue 280 loftead of 218,88 stated kiy Mr. McAIpinn. With regard to the speed of vessels on lakes and rivers, and time of transit by the various routes, Mr. Young, in continuance of his criticism on Mr. McAlpine's statement, proceeds : " Let me now allude t • the question of speed on the lakes and river naviga- tion. Mr. McAlpine says, on page 9 of his report, ' that it will not be economi- cal to exceed eight miles an hour on the lakes and six miles on rivers. la reply, I state, without fear of contra- diction, that there are propellers now in the trade between Montreal and head of Lake Ontario and to Chicago, regu- larly running ten mileti an hour, and I am aware of some that run eleven miles an hour. These vessels pass vhrough the Welland Canal, and are about 400 tons burden. It is not, there- fore, too much to say that such being the speed of those vessels, the speed of the 1,(H)0 ton vessel, when the canals are enlarged, will at least be er|ual. The St. Lawience below Kingston is the only river to be traversed on the route to Troy, an take inilef, gives time oyage HoUB. 3.75 . 22 ?3 .- . 14 00 9 04 3 83 . 13.87 fl CO 9 41 84 69 Miles. Speed Tinie. From Fort Edward to Troy (ilvei) 40 6 6.66 Tot**! ft7 CO Add fiftauo niiunteH each for twenty* two locbf. . .. 6.50 Total 63. IG or 63.16 :00h'urB HKtinHi 95 59-100 ditl. r Rrori of thirty-two (lud one-half hoJirw. Then on pflg© 11 Mr. McAlpine gives a comparison of tLa time on the Uneidn lake route : Rati. MileH. Speed. 'Jimt; From Oswego to Phciunix 21 8.50 Frv)m PI oeiix toUewego (lak.) 13} .. 3.75 TliiougL Oueida (lakt ) 23 .. 3 b.s Tlir.iiKh Oiiti good average for an elevator, we have thus ten hours for the 60,000 bunhels, and if We allow two hours more for berthing and mooring the ship, we have twelve hours, which, if added to the sixty-seT- en and forty-three one-hundredth houra as above, the time by the Oswego route would be eighty hourj*, against sixty- three and one half hours by the Caugh- nawaga route, or a diHerence in favor o|' the latter of sixteen hours, whereaa Mr McAlpine erroneously, in his Oswe- go report, declares the ditlerence in favor of the ( >-»wego route to be twenty-one hours, contradicting bis statetuent, when associated with Messrs. Kirk wood and ('hilde, that '' by way of Oswego a trtinsliipment must be mad© from the lake vessel to canal boats, ard the extra oost oi* canal tranKi)0ri and toll must be added to that route, while by way of Like (,'hamplaiu to New York no transhipment is required, and the economy of lime and of iians- port by the Like Champlain route could not fail to attract a very huge share of the trade between the Western States, New England and New York." With reference tr. the cost of tran- sport Mr. Young proceeiis : "I shall now examine Mr. McAlpine's estimate ot the cost of transport t>v the two routes m question Both are equal in reference lo O vego, for to that point from the upper lakes the 1,000 ton pro- pellor is con)mon to the two routes, and it is as to the merits of the route Irom Oswego to Troy, by c inal, with a tran- shi[>ment at (.)swego, and the advanta- ges of th route trora Oswego, by the S . Lawre ne and Champlain route to Troy, thai are now in question, fn the report of Mes.'-rs. McAlpine, Kirl-.vvood and Childe, the cost ol the transport was fixed at four mills per ton per mile, on large ship canals, and two mills on lakes. Mr. McAlpine, in his late re- port, after elaborate calculations, deter- mines the cost of transport by the Onei- da and Oswego canal at a little lees than one and a half mills per ton on lakes, and three and a half mills on ship canals, the ditterence bein ', no doubr^ in consequence of thg enlarged oha,- racter of the navigation and size of the vessel. 10 "'^riMT, FROM CHICAGO TO TBOT m ST. i-AW- RtfNOP AMD LAKB CHAMFLAIN. Laf 1 Nivigation. Miles. Trom Chicago to Eiogston 1,077 Lake CbamplaiD.. 134 Total J, 211 at Ij mlU», $1 92 River Navigalion . 1''rom K ngBton to TinKbD « w a g A, «qail to lake... 169 at ^ mill(>, 25 Cannl Navigation. Welland 28 Oaughnawata 34 Champlain 25 Total 87 at 3^ mills, 30 'Hudson Bivrr im- pr vement ... 40 at 2 tn'.lU, 8 ^otal cost per iioii $2 45 ■" SECOND, FROM CrilCAOO TO TROT VIA ONEI- PA LAKE AND O.SWBGO. Miles. C/blcaKO to Oswego. 1,077 OaeidiiJ.ake 23 Total 1,100 lit 1^ mills, $1 65 O.-tweffo to Troy : T)8wego Canal 2l C >nal to Omida L-tke 13.t "Oneida Canal 6 Eric Canal to Ticy. 128 Total 169 at ? J mills, 59 Add cost of tran- sliipment 20 Twelve h' urts'detm- ♦ ion, interest and insurance 20 Total $2 64 *' t)r, 8iy a ditForcnce in favour of the Dbatnplain route of twenty cents per ton. Yet Mr. Mc Alpine declares ' that ooraparing the cost, we find a diif^rence of forty seven cents per ton in favour of the Oneida L-vke rout?, or seventeen per cent, less than by the Caughnawa- Toute.' Still this same gentleman with Messrs. Kirkwood and Childe, declared in their report of 1S,58, that by tahing the large lake vessel through to White- \bM < the cost would be twenty cents per ton less than by the way of Oswego, even if the Champlain canai[ should not be enlarged, so as to sUow the large lake vessels to go direot to New York ;' and again, when the St. Lawrence and Caughnawaga improvements are coiu> pleted, it will be by far ' the cheapest mode of corriraunicatiois to New Eng- land and to New York." '' It, perhaps, wi:^ not necessary to have gone iuto this question so minute- ly. The gveat fact is acknowledged by Mr. McAlpine and not contradicted by the Ofiwego Board of Trade, that it is impossible to take the lake vessel of 1,000 tons, carrying 50,000 bushels of gram, through from Oswego to Troy without breaking bulk, and without transferrin g her cargo into barges of 500 tons. It is also admitted by all that there is no difficulty vrhatever of taking this 1.000 ton vessel down the St. Lawrence and into Lake Champlain, to discharge her western cargo at Bur- lington, for Boston, or for distribution through' ut New England, or to go on to New York without transfer of cargo or breaking bulk. These are tacts not disputed. I have shown t'oat even if the cargo could be tran.st'erred at Oawego at the rate of 5,00(^ bushels per hour, there would be a detention of at least twelve hour=, and that the Champlain route is the quickest and cheapest route, while the cost of ths work necessary by the one is admitted to be over $25,000,- 00*3, while the itaprovements of the Champlain canal trom VVhil hall to 'IVoy have never been estimated at o^er |6,0(X1,0(». The route by the St. Law- rence will be ben 'icial to the whole of the f^astern stateib>, ..s well as to New Yorl . and places all these states not orly in direct communication with the west and western Canada, but with tiie great timbe.- regions of the Ottawa valley. " The Oswego board of trade declare that the Oneida lake route has the ad- vantage of ' two weeks' earlier naviga- tion in the spring, and two weeks later in the fall,' while the facts prove that the St. Lawreiice canal and Lake Cham- plain are open earlier and later than the Erie canrii. Then again, we are tod of ' the fogs of the St. Lawrence.' We b ve all hr ird of the fogs around Newfoundland and in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, but it is q'lite new to govei on f<| not inent the CI to b[ tweej Unit{ entirl ehoof port,! tuattf in tb| in 11 COIU- learn of the fogs on the St. Lnwrence above Montreal. Again, the Oswego board say « it is th« oldest route.' This i» aleo an error, tor I have before me a statement showing that Mftjor.-Gei . Ira Allen, of Vermont, applied to Oen, Haldimand, governor ot Quebes. in 1784 tor a licenee to open up ' a naviga- ble ship canal from Lnke Cbamplain to the River St. Lawrence by the way of the Surrell river.' " The whole subject seems to me of such great importance to both countries that I have been anxious that the facts as to both routes should be f urly stated. I have shown that Mr. McAlpine s state- ment, ot there being 165 miles canal navigation below Oswego on the Cham- plain route — is an error, and that when the St. Lawrence is improved, the canals on that river on the downward voyage will not be used. The first canal is the Caughnawaga, of thirty-four and a-half miles, fro/a the St. Lawrence into Lake Champlain. The next is from Whitehall to Fori E;s(, considering the favorable and inevita ! ble results.' 'The distance from the ' westerly end of the Welland canal to i Troy i-, via the St. Lawrence and Cham- i plain route, 59)0 miles will be free and uninterrupted ' lake and river down- stream navigation, and ninety miles, on the down voyage, is canal. I arrive at the conclusion that it will take tour days and thirteen ^ b-»urs to carry a ton of freight fram Lake L. ie to Troy, or ti(te-water.' Again, ' the St. Lawrence line is open from twelve to eighteen days longer than the Erie canal, and we can carry a ton of ; freight at one dollar and ninety five cents less than by the Eiie canal.' Mr. Mills says further, ' it is said we are to have a ship-canal frcm < ).swego to tide water. Such a work will be about 2tX) miles long, which possibly may be had tor |!2r),(MK),()(X>, but in the name of com- mon sense and judgment, why spend that when you can get a better line, one of greatvr capacity, of quicker transit, for one-fourth the sum, which will be returned to the treasury of the state in tolls in about four years.' It is satis- factory thst this opinion was also ap- proved of l.y Walter Shanly, E'^q., the eminent civil er^ineer and contractor for the Hoosac tunnel, who, in writing to Mr. Millf, declared that, ' I am satisfied that the only solution of the problem of how 12 the water communioation between Jvake Erie and the Atlantic can be made to keep pace in capocity with the (trowing trade o( the West, and of New York, ia to bo found in the way so clearly point- ed out by you. " It is aSs© satisfactory th.it Mr. Mo Alpine, in ]858, with his coUeaguen, Messrs. Kirkwood and Childe, expres Bed a similar opinion by declaring that ' the economy and time of transport by the Lake ChampUin route could not fail to attract a very large share of western states, New England and New \ork trade,' and ' when the route of the St. Lawrence is improved it will present the cheapest mode of com- munication, not only to the spaboard, but also to New York and New Eng land.' " The advocates ot the Oswego routes claim that the necessity which exists for transhipment at that place is a positive advantage, inasmuch as it prevents in- jury to the grain by healing. Now, on natural water ways, no one ever heard of grain being damaged in this manner, and all the testimony taken before the Senate Committee in relation to the transportation of gram 1 20U and 1,5 miles down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, under a tropical or almost tropical sun, shows that there was no difficulty of this kind. On the cooler water ways of the great lakes and rivers, of course there is less reason to apprehend this dinger, which in fact does not exist, but in the heated waters of canals it is a thing constantly occur- ring, and is a real and solid objection against long reaches of canals of less capacity than the broad water channels of the Champl.Jn route. I have thrs briefly adverted to some of thfc leading features of Lhe proposed improvement, and met and answered some of the objections urged against it, and corrected some of the mis-state ment-i with regard to it, and I will now for a moment consider the q''.e8tion of its coats. We have an estimate in detail very carefully prepared by Mr. McElroy in hi'-' reuort of 1867 for a canal and river improvement for a canal, the pri.-im of which tar(jH, $1.50 $420,000 Eiiith oxoavatioD, 5,500,000 cu- bic yard-', 30c . 1 ,650,000' Pour lock'* cotuplete, $15 ',000 . 600,000' Right- f-w .y 120,000' 8ixt(^e» filing highw>»y l ridsyes, ' ' $i 4,204 227,264'- Two Bwing railrcHd brMges, .-"■*! $18,524 37,04i? Wood crenk dam 3 849: Engineering .V,6.8\S' Totnl $3,3 4,»77 R'sp^ctfaljv p\il)TnittP(« : G Thomas Hall. A!^8i^tant Eugiurd to the produce, bstacle in nt to the iderful re- look with interest, and with confidence that the judgment of experienced and ttained engineers will show that tlie Champlain is the onhj practicable route for a ship canal or any canal of sufficient capacity to meet the re^^uirements of the case. I have written upon this subject sole- ly with reference to its forming a link in the great water route to the west, and have not the space to allude, as I could wish, to the part it would play in the development of the inexhaustible mineral resources of the counties bor* dering on Lake Champlain, but in pass- ing I will simply poiai to a great advan- tage which this route p.^ssesses over any other, which is, that an immense amount of return freighti< could be secured for vessels which, on any other route, must go back entirely empty or in ballast. The iron ore, slate and marble of northern New York and Vermont which are now shipped west at great troub.'.e and expense, would furnish so lartje an amount of return freights as to serious- ly reduce the rate of freights bound to tide waters. The prosperity of any country, according to the best authori- ties in political economy, is mainly based upon deposits of coal and iron, and the proper development of thi j region alone in the vast addition to the material wealth of th'j state, would justify the construction of this great work, as merely a state work, without reference to its national character. It is impossible, within the limits at my disposal to more than touch upon the important issues mvolved, and I therefore dismiss the subject commend- ing its careful consideration to all in- terested in the present and future pros- perity of our state, believing it to be the subject of the moat surpassing and paramount importance now before the people. Respectfully submitted, Alexander Barkkev, Canal Commissioner. Albany, March, lii75. ghnawaga leap water on in rates 1 competi- iransporta- orably im- l must be. d it, as the report will cpress the York wu ■ construct- the Chara- nver to the vent of the \ the work, rovernmeufc ttention to title it." , and a full tiia route, as B canals, are 1. engineers, Wilson, U. ch we may