1880. There were in the latter year 73 boats on the canal, averaging

100 tons. _The Schuylkill Navigation_ (see profile, p. 206) Pa., was incorporated in 1815, for the purpose of connecting the coal region of Mount Carbon with the city of Philadelphia. The canal was completed in 1826, when the depth of water was three feet, and the carrying capacity of the boats employed was 25 tons. By 1847 the minimum depth of water was made 6 feet, and the boats employed averaged 170 tons. In 1850, a flood, which devastated the Schuylkill valley, swept away dams, locks, tow-paths, and banks, so that hardly a trace of the canal existed for many miles, but this damage was subsequently repaired. The locks on the canal are 110 feet by 18 feet. The lockage on the main line of the canal is 618½ feet. There are 47 waterways, two overflows, with 3300 feet in both, 121 bridges, 22 culverts, 31 dams, and 12 aqueducts. The company has had a chequered career, and the canal was, in 1870, leased to the Pa. and Reading Railroad Co., for 999 years, at a yearly rental of 655,000 dollars. [Illustration: PROFILE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL.] _The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal_, illustrated in profile, is one of the most important works of its kind in the United States, connecting the Potomac and Ohio rivers, piercing the Allegheny mountains by a tunnel 3118 feet in length, and having cost, on its completion in 1851, no less than 11,071,000 dols., or 60,000 dols. (12,001_l._) per mile. The canal has a depth of 6 feet throughout. For about 60 miles it is 60 feet wide at the top, and 42 feet at the bottom; for 47 miles its surface width is 850 feet, and its bottom width, 32 feet; and for 77½ miles more the surface width is 54 feet, and the bottom width 38 feet. The locks are 100 feet long and 15 feet wide in the clear; they are capable of passing boats carrying 120 tons. There are 74 lift-locks and a tide-lock. The water-supply is drawn entirely from the Potomac, seven dams having been constructed across the river for this purpose. [Illustration: PROFILE OF THE ERIE CANAL, N.Y.] [Illustration: PROFILE OF THE OHIO CANAL.] [Illustration: PROFILE OF THE CHESAPEAKE & OHIO CANAL.] _The Ohio Canal._—This canal has a length of 309 miles, extending from Cleveland on Lake Erie to Portsmouth on the Ohio river. From the former city it ascends the valleys of the Cuyahoga and Little Cuyahoga rivers, and reaches the north end of the summit-level at Akron, 38 miles from Cleveland. This portion is fed mainly from the Cuyahoga and Little Cuyahoga rivers, and has an ascent of 395½ feet, overcome by means of 44 locks. Of these, twenty-one are within 3 miles and sixteen within 1½ mile of the north end of the summit-level at Akron. Power is utilised by a number of mills, principally at the last mentioned place. The canal now enters the basin of the Tuscarawas river, and from the south end of what is known as the Portage summit-level has an uninterrupted descent to Welsport, following the Tuscarawas valley and then that of the main Muskingum river. In this distance of 112 miles there is a fall of 238·6 feet, effected by 29 locks. The low-level at Welsport is also at the foot of a continuous descent from the Licking summit, which lies to the westward, the surplus waters entering it from either direction being discharged through a side cut into the Muskingum river at Dresden. On the division extending from the Portage summit to Welsport and Dresden, there are nearly a dozen flouring-mills, using various powers, ranging usually between 15 and 50 horse-power, but in two or three cases reaching 100 and 150. From the low-level at Welsport the canal rises to the westward to the Licking summit, making an ascent of 160 feet in the 42 miles by means of nineteen locks. The water supply is derived from the Licking river at the Narrows, from one or two forks of the main river, and from the Licking reservoir. There are no returns indicating any present use of power on this section of the canal. At Newark there is a fall of 18 feet from the feeder and from the main canal to the water-surface in the north fork of the Licking river, but it is not utilised. In years past the feeder had been employed at Newark for a small woollen mill, a flouring-mill, and a sawmill, which did rather an extensive business; but they have, one after another, abandoned the use of the water power. The feeder at that point draws from the north fork, and should take its entire low-flow, but the feeder-dam is reported as leaky, and the canal has been allowed to silt up, thereby diminishing its capacity, so that the available flow of the stream is not utilised. _The Sault St. Marie Canal._—One of the most remarkable canals in the world is that known as the Sault St. Marie, or St. Mary’s Falls Canal, in the State of Michigan, which connects the waters of Lake Superior and Lake Huron, and thereby affords a means of communication between some of the most important territories and centres of population in the United States. The position of the canal is illustrated in the chapter on “Canadian Waterways.” The head of Lake Superior is 1400 miles from New York. Of this distance some 880 miles are deep water navigation by the Lakes, the outlet of which is St. Mary’s River. The St. Mary’s Strait is 75 miles long, and in this distance there is a fall of 20 feet 4 inches, of which 18 feet 2 inches occur at the Sault, while the remainder of the descent, 2 feet 2 inches, is distributed over the first 35 miles below that point. Hence the river is tortuous, and navigation is rendered unsafe by the rapids, although from a point 50 miles below the foot of Lake Superior navigation is good for the remainder of the distance of 25 miles to Lake Huron. In 1855 the St. Mary Falls Canal was built for the purpose of overcoming the fall between the Lakes Superior and Huron. The length of the canal is only about one mile, so that, as compared with the Suez and other ship canals, its extent is unimportant. But so far as its traffic is concerned, this is the most important canal in the world. Commencing with an annual tonnage of only about 100,000 tons at the time of its construction, the canal now disposes of an annual tonnage of over six millions, thus exceeding the tonnage passed over the Suez Canal by nearly a million of tons. In 1855, two locks were built on the St. Mary’s Falls Canal, each 70 feet wide and 350 feet long between the gates. These locks could not accommodate vessels drawing more than 11½ feet. But in 1880, when the canal had been transferred by the State of Michigan to the United States, as a work of national importance, the Government undertook the construction of a new lock, which was opened in 1881, and which has been described by competent engineers as the finest piece of hydraulic engineering on the American continent. The lock is at the lower end, and is 515 feet long between the gates and 80 feet wide in the chamber, with 17 feet of water on the sills. The lift is 18 feet, more or less, according to the fall in the rapids between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. The gates are not set opposite to each other on the same axis, but on parallel axes 20 feet apart, so that the width between the gates is reduced to 60 feet, while in the chamber it is 80 feet, the difference being met by reverse curves on either side. Advantage is taken of the natural water power created by the lock to establish by the side of it an accumulator for operating the gates and valves by hydraulic pressure—in the same manner as at the London and Liverpool docks—which works admirably. The chamber is filled and emptied by culverts of large dimensions, under the mitre sills, without producing any disturbance of the vessel, because the tunnel or culvert runs the whole length of the chamber, with openings at the top, which are so arranged as to distribute the force of the inflowing current along the centre, entirely under the vessel’s keel. In 1886, when the Canadian and Pacific Railway steamer _Arthabaska_ passed through the lock, it took one minute and a half to close the upper gates, seven minutes and a half to empty the lock, and one minute and a half to open the lower gates. Altogether, from the time of entering the lock to the time of going out of it again, the passage was made in thirteen minutes, and there was no hurry about it. It is only by the great initial pressure afforded by the accumulator, about 600 lbs. to the square inch, that the valves and gates could be commanded with so much ease and rapidity. This system has been seven years in operation, and its efficiency proves the great care and skill with which all the details of construction have been worked out. The lock was six years in building, and cost, including the enlargement of the canal, about three millions of dollars. The two other locks, now called the “old locks,” built by the State of Michigan, and first opened in 1855, are still in use. These old locks are combined, having lifts of 9 feet each to overcome the whole fall of 18 feet. The gates are suspended from pillars seated on the coping of the quoins, and the chambers are filled and emptied through the gates in the old-fashioned way. The old canals and locks were assumed by the United States Government in 1881. The shipping that goes through this canal all passes free, both domestic and foreign. The staple articles of the commerce using the canal are coal, copper, flour, grain, iron ore, pig and manufactured iron, lumber, salt, silver ore, and building stones. Before the opening of the canal the commerce here was nil. It now threatens soon to exceed the capacity of both locks, in view of which the United States Government has already commenced a second enlargement, the estimated cost of which is nearly five millions of dollars. This new lock is to occupy the site of the old combined locks, and is to surpass all other locks in the grandeur of its dimensions. It will have a chamber 800 feet long between the gates, the width, both in the chamber and at the gates, will be 100 feet throughout, and the depth on the sills will be 21 feet. Of course there are no vessels on the upper lakes large enough to fill such a lock as this, but it is designed to pass a fleet through at a single lockage, including tug-boats, with their flotilla of barges. The canal is to be uniformly 20 feet in depth. Previous to the construction of the St. Mary’s Falls Canal, all the outside supplies for the upper lake had to be unloaded at the foot of the rapids, transferred over a portage road to the head of the rapids, and reshipped at great expense. Even the vessels which were sailing on Lake Superior had been handed out and dragged around the rapids in the same way. The transfer and supply business became the great industry, and as the mining fever developed, and the Lake Superior district began to boast of its few scattered but permanent settlements, it seemed as if Sault Ste Marie was destined to be the central and chief city of this region. The portage trade, in the very nature of things, could not last. The demands of Lake Superior were too urgent to admit of the delay and harassment incident to this method of transfer, and the construction of a ship canal around the rapids became a practical problem which demanded a speedy solution. Governor Mason in 1837, in his first message, advised the building of such a canal, and during the same year a survey was made for that purpose. In 1838 an appropriation bill was passed by the Legislature, and in the following year the contractors commenced the work. Much to their surprise, the military authorities considered the work an infringement upon the rights of the General Government, and an armed force from Fort Brady drove the contractors off the ground. This put a quietus to the work for several years, although the advocates of the measure did not cease to urge it upon the attention of the State Legislature and Congress. In 1852, however, the latter passed a Bill appropriating 750,000 acres of land to aid in the construction of a canal. In 1853 the Legislature authorised the commencement of the work. The contract was let to construct two consecutive locks, each 350 feet long, 70 feet wide, with a depth of 13 feet of water, and proper canal approaches. These were the old State locks, now about to be removed and replaced by a single lock which, as already stated, will in its dimensions and capacity, be the largest in the world. This canal has resulted in adding Lake Superior to that system of waterways which is the pride and the chief commercial feature of the northern border. The commerce of the great American lakes has enormously increased within recent years, as the statistics of the St. Mary’s Falls Canal sufficiently prove. In 1872 the registered tonnage that passed through the canal was under a million tons; in 1880 it was only 1,734,000 tons; and in 1886 it had increased to 4,219,000 tons. The growth of the trade continues. The navigation, it will be remembered, is only open for about seven months of the year, usually commencing about the first week of May, and closing in the first week of December. If it were open all the year round, like that of the Suez Canal, the difference of business, in favour of the St. Mary’s Falls Canal, as compared with the Suez and other great canals, would be much more marked than it is. The tonnage carried through the canal in 1886 was made up of— Coal 1,009,000 tons. Iron ore 2,089,000 ” Copper 39,000 ” Salt 159,000 ” Iron and steel 115,000 ” Wheat 18,991,000 bushels. Flour 1,759,000 barrels. On the St. Mary’s Falls Canal in 1888 there were carried no less than 6,411,000 net tons (2000 lbs.) of freight and 25,558 passengers, the freight including nearly 19 million bushels of wheat, over 2½ million tons of lumber (timber), about 2¼ million tons of coal, and 2,190,000 barrels of flour. The total number of vessels that used the canal in that year was 7803, of which 5305 were steamers. The average cargo carried by each vessel, large and small, was about 822 tons, being an increase of 40 per cent. on that of the previous year. This is a development that can hardly be paralleled in the history of transportation. Taking the navigation season at seven months, it means an average of 916,000 tons per month passing through the canal, or at the rate of about 11 million tons a year, which is roughly about double the tonnage that makes use of the Suez Canal. On the first blush, it is by no means apparent that the St. Mary’s Falls Canal can do much to advance the maritime intercourse of the United States with the nations of the East. And yet it may become an important factor in this direction; so much so, that there are those who hold that New York is likely thereby to become the great distributing centre for the produce of India and China, not on the American continent only, but throughout European and African Atlantic ports as well. This conclusion is based upon circumstances that appear to be only imperfectly understood in Europe. The tunnelling of the Cascade Mountains, now in progress in Washington Territory, will bring Duluth within 1800 miles of Paget Sound, thus bringing the waters of the Pacific Ocean within 1800 miles of navigable waters flowing directly into the Atlantic Ocean, through Lake Superior, the Sault, and the Erie Canal. By this means New York will, it is claimed, be brought within 10,500 miles of Canton, while the distance between that city and London, Liverpool, or Antwerp is 17,000 to 18,000 miles. Between New York and Canton, _viâ_ the Isthmus of Suez, the distance is 20,500 miles, and by the Cape of Good Hope it is 22,500 miles. The future is therefore likely to work some changes in the balance of Eastern trade, although it may not happen that the St. Mary’s Fall Canal will, as some enthusiasts suppose, become the most important rival of the Suez Canal, and “one of the greatest factors in bringing about tremendous changes in the commerce of the world.” In order to give some idea of the remarkable key-like location of the “Sault” or “Soo,” and the character of the locks, which are the prominent feature of the canal, we have reproduced, in the following chapter (that on Canada) from a recently published work on that locality, a sketch-map, showing the railway and waterway communications that are concentrated at this point (p. 226). PROJECTED CANALS. _The Florida Ship Canal._—In 1869 the Board of Trade of Mobile memorialised the Congress of the United States for an appropriation for a survey for a ship canal, to open ship communication between the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, through the Florida peninsula. The proposed canal, it was pointed out, might commence at Tamper Bay, on the Gulf side of Florida. At this point there is a naturally well-protected harbour, with ample depth of water for ships drawing 20 feet, and the channel could be permanently deepened. East of Tamper Bay, in a distance of 125 miles across the peninsula of Florida at its narrowest part, with one exception, the maps show on the Atlantic coast depths of 27 feet to 28 feet of water quite close to the shore, and thence to the broad expanse of the Atlantic a free and unobstructed way for vessels. It is believed by competent authorities that a very efficient ship canal, with adequate depth of water, could be made here without great cost. The land is level across the proposed route, with only a few feet elevation above tide-water. The importance of such a canal would no doubt be considerable. The passage around the southern point of Florida is narrow, is subject to tornadoes, and is beset with concealed reefs, upon which a rapid current tends to throw ships, besides which the long passage round the peninsula would be obviated. _Delaware and Chesapeake Canal._—Notwithstanding the comparative disuse of a great part of the existing American canal system, a proposal has been put forward quite recently to construct a waterway to connect Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. This canal, if it were carried out, would be about 17 miles in length, and it is estimated to cost 8,500,000 dols. (1,700,000_l._). It is proposed to adopt the following dimensions:—width, 100 feet; depth at low-water, 26 feet; side slopes, 1½ to 1 foot. TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES. The transportation problem continues to exercise the minds of the people of the United States in a way that the people of Great Britain can but imperfectly appreciate. The cost of conveying traffic from Chicago to New York has already been brought down to an average of 6·6 cents per bushel for water, and 10 to 12 cents for rail transport. In other words, the cost of transporting a ton of goods between the two greatest commercial cities of the New World has been brought down to ·09_d._ by water, and 0·11_d._ by land. So notable an achievement ought, one would naturally suppose, to satisfy the insatiable appetite of our American friends for cheap transportation, but so far from this being the case, they are now considering how far it is possible to reduce the 6·6 cent water-rate to five or even four cents, and the possibility is hinted at of reducing the rates to three cents per bushel,[120] which would be a fraction over 0·04_d._ per ton per mile. This would mean, if actually accomplished, that a ton of goods might be carried between London and Edinburgh—a distance of over 400 miles—for 16_d._, or, to put the matter in a way that may be readily appreciated, the cost of the transport of the 2,463,000 tons of coal conveyed by sea from Newcastle to London in 1888 would be reduced to 1_s._ per ton, and the inhabitants of London might thus reckon on having their coal supplies almost as cheaply as if they lived within thirty miles of the mines. In order, however, to bring about the contemplated further reduction of the cost of transport between Chicago and New York, it is proposed to construct a New Erie Canal. The cost would be stupendous. It has been calculated at about 150 millions of dollars, but it would probably involve a still larger expenditure, inasmuch as ship canals seldom come within their estimates. A remarkable calculation has been made, by way of justifying this large outlay. It is reckoned that if one cent alone can be saved on the cost of transporting a bushel of wheat over this route, it would mean a total saving of about nineteen million of dollars on the products of the forest, the field, and the mine, which are tributary to the great American lakes. The American Society of Civil Engineers were recently called upon to consider a project for “the widening, deepening, and necessary rectification of the worst curvatures of the present Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Newark, about 130 miles; the construction of a new canal from Newark to Utica, about 115 miles; the canalisation of the Mohawk River from Utica to Troy, about 110 miles; and the improvement of the Hudson river from Troy to Four Mile Point, in Coxsackie, a distance of about thirty miles.” The adoption of this programme would make the Erie Canal the most important artificial waterway in the world, the tonnage that would make use of it, when thus improved, being calculated at 20 to 25 millions a year. The cost of the undertaking (estimated at 25,000,000_l._ to 30,000,000_l._), although a large sum, is not deemed to be too much for a great artificial river more than 300 miles long, 18 feet deep, 100 feet wide at the bottom, and having locks 450 feet long and 60 feet wide. These dimensions would enable the canal to float the largest vessels that navigate the great lakes from Lake Erie to the deep waters of the Hudson. FOOTNOTES: [110] In 1880, the Erie canal carried 4,608,651 tons of traffic and earned 1,120,691 dols. of income. [111] The main line of this canal was sold in 1857 to the Pennsylvania Railway Company for 7½ million dollars, and the branches were sold to various private companies for five million dollars more. [112] Poor’s ‘Manual of the Railroads of the United States,’ 1881. [113] Report of the Committee of Ways and Means. [114] Poor’s Manual for 1881, p. xxxviii. [115] Including in the latter year nearly 1½ million bushels of beans and oatmeal. [116] ‘Annual Report on the Commerce and Navigation of the United States’ for 1884, p. xlxi. [117] Consisting of 23 inclined planes and 23 lift locks. [118] ‘Railroad Transportation,’ p. 31. [119] ‘Report of the Tenth Census,’ vol. iv. pp. 29-31. [120] ‘Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers,’ vol xiv. p. 99.