On December 22, 1792, the act was amended as the lessons of the season seemed to indicate that there was necessity. The principal amendments were that the locks built on the company’s works should have a breadth of not less than ten feet at the base and should have a length of not less than seventy feet between gates. The company was to be allowed, in the future, to take up land without first having paid for it—settlement to be made afterward in proper legal form. The land under all locks was vested in the company owning the locks.[7]
It would seem from Elkanah Watson’s account that, when these subscription books were opened for signatures of prospective stockholders, there were absolutely no subscribers forthcoming. “They had been opened three days by the committee,” he wrote from New York where he happened to be in April (?), “at the old coffee-house, and not a share was subscribed. I considered the cause hopeless—called on my friend (I think it was) James Watson, Esq., and induced him, with much pursuasion, to subscribe twenty [?] shares; from that moment the subscriptions went on briskly. On my arrival in Albany, the commissioners had kept the books open several days, at Lewis’s old tavern, in State street, and no mortal had yet signed to exceed two shares. I immediately subscribed seven in each company....” Watson also wrote to Schuyler of the low state of affairs; the latter ordered him to subscribe to ten shares in Schuyler’s name.[8]
A committee appointed by the directors of the Western Company, August 14, 1792, consisting of Philip Schuyler, Goldsbrow Bangar, and Elkanah Watson, to examine the Mohawk from Fort Schuyler (Rome) to Schenectady, reported in the following September. Accompanied by the surveyor Moses De Witt, and Mr. Lightall, a carpenter, and a Mr. Nesbit, the committee left Schenectady August 21 in a batteau, and reached Fort Schuyler on the twenty-ninth. Their itinerary gives us a picture of the old river, and preserves valuable facts for local historians.[9] The first day’s journey was six and one-half miles to John Mabey’s, half a mile above Jacobus Swart’s. Six rapids were passed, over which the water ran, on the average, a foot and a half deep—the river then having the least water running “within the memory of the eldest person.” The night of the twenty-second was spent at John Fonda’s, seventeen and three-fourths miles up the river; in this distance were five sharp rapids and many small rapids with shallow water, as at Sir William Johnson’s “first settlement,” eight and one-half miles above Mabey’s. The night of the twenty-third was spent at Mr. Nellis’s, nineteen and three-fourths miles on; one mile above Fonda’s was “Caughnawaga rift, deep, incommoded with large rocks;” nine miles onward, lay Kettar’s rapid, and two and a half miles on was Colonel John Fry’s. A journey of four miles the next day brought the examiners to Fort Hendrick, four and a half miles below Little Falls. “From the landing at the foot [of Little Falls], to the landing at the head of the Falls, is about three-quarters of a mile, the height thirty-nine feet two inches, the ground stony, rocky and rough.” It will be seen that this was not the old-time portage over which boats were drawn on sleds. Two days were spent examining this strategic fall. Proceeding on the twenty-seventh, Fort Schuyler, about fifty miles distant, was reached on the twenty-ninth. The navigation throughout this distance was good with but two rapids, Orendorff’s and Wolf’s.
The recommendations of the committee affirm that the work at Little Falls will be the most important and expensive single work, and would consist of a canal by which river craft can overcome the fall of nearly forty feet; in addition to the canal “a strong work ... to prevent the Canal and Locks from being overflowed, and damaged in high freshes; at this point two guard gates at the distance of seventy feet from each other must be placed; the surface of the ground here is eight feet eight inches above the level of the water in the river above the falls, and, as three feet ought to be given for the depth of the water in the Canal, the depth to be dug at this point will be nearly twelve feet.... Many large stones and rocks, and probably much solid rock will be found in all the distance ... which is 1666 feet; the quantity of earth, stone, and rock to be removed in this space, if the Canal has ten feet base, will be about 242,200 cubic feet. [For] 422 feet the Canal must be confined by a double dyke, or embankment, about four feet high; [for] 123 feet the whole depth to be dug is about 4½ feet and contains 5,085 cubic feet; at various places to the water at the bottom of the falls about 100,000 cubic feet of earth must be removed, and about 1,200 feet of a dyke to be made. An estimate of the expense of this work with five Locks ... amounts to £10,500.”
The improvement of the river from Schenectady to the mouth of the Schoharie would call for an expenditure of £20,000 in dykes, dams, and small canals.
At Rome a canal 5,352 feet long was proposed as a substitute for the ancient portage path; “apparently the mean depth of the earth to be removed for forming the Canal would be about twelve feet at the greatest depth, hence about 642,240 cubic feet of earth must be removed. The ground though soft is so much interwoven with the roots of trees, and the work will also be so much retarded by the influx of water into the Canal whilst digging, that it is supposed that one man could not remove above fifty cubic feet per day, hence 12,845 days for one man would be required; which at 4s. per day amounts to £2,569. In very dry times, such as the present, the water in the Mohawk is so little that none can be spared to increase the quantity in Wood Creek. A bulkhead must therefore be placed ... precisely of the height with the level of the water in the Mohawk, a boat then in this low state of the river coming up Wood Creek ... must unlade, and be drawn across the bulkhead into the Canal; there reloaded and proceed through the Canal into the Mohawk River; but when the Mohawk River rises so much as that a quantity of water equal to carry an empty boat is added to the water in the river, the water on the bulkhead will rise to nearly that height, and the empty boat will pass. If the rise be equal to the water drawn by a loaded boat, the boat and its cargo will pass the bulkhead into the Canal. It is evident by this arrangement the navigation of Wood Creek will be much mended whenever the water in the Mohawk is higher than at present. The whole expence at this place will probably not exceed £3,000.”
Many of the general observations of this committee are important in the history of water transportation across New York.
“Having premised thus much your Committee beg leave to observe, That since (except in such an extraordinary dry season as the present) the river from Schenectady to Scohara Creek is capable of considerable navigation—is still better from thence to the Falls, and will be good to Fort Schuyler, especially if the trees and timber are removed, That therefore, except the removal of the trees and timber West of, and blowing a few rocks on, some of the rapids, East of the Falls, nothing further should be speedily attempted in the parts mentioned; but that the primary exertions should be directed to the Canal and Locks at the Falls; that when this is completed, the water in the river above, will probably be sufficiently low to clear away the timber which incommodes it, and to do the like by Wood-Creek down to the Oneida Lake, and to remove the most dangerous rocks below the Falls. This accomplished, the next in degree of eligibility, appears to your Committee, to extend the navigation from Schenectady to the navigable waters of the Hudson—because when with the improvements above suggested, the river shall be rendered navigable in the greater part of its extent from Fort Schuyler to Schenectady, in all seasons not so dry as the present, for boats of considerable burthen; yet the portage from Schenectady to Albany, is not only a very heavy charge on the produce of the upper country, but attended with serious inconveniences to those who enter largely into the interior commerce. To prepare for the accomplishment of this apparently very necessary part of the navigation, your committee recommend, That accurate surveys should be made, as early in the ensuing spring as circumstances will permit, to enable the board to determine the direction in which Canals are to run, to take the necessary preliminary measures for providing the materials; that, if the works at the Falls, &c., should be completed before the whole of the next operating season is expired, the residue may be appropriated to this important part of the navigation, and completed in the succeeding year;—Soon after this shall be accomplished, the company will be enabled to judge with precision, what farther is in their power, and if what they have done, should prove beneficial to the community at large, and the resources of the company be then found not competent to such a perfect completion of the whole internal navigation, as is contemplated by the act of incorporation, there can be little doubt but that an enlightened Legislature will extend its aid, to objects promising such extensive benefits to every class of citizens.
“It now remains for your Committee to venture an opinion on the mode of conducting the contemplated improvements. The observations already made will evince the necessity of strict economy in every operation. It will certainly occur to the Directors, that in a work so extensive, as that committed to them, much unnecessary expence, and much waste of time must be incurred, unless the executive part of the business be properly conferred; and your committee, to avoid this evil as much as possible, recommend that the executive of the business should be committed to a single directing head, to a man of known and acknowledged abilities, of a mind so comprehensive, as to combine and form all the arrangements, with a minute detail of each part....
“A Person who has had practical experience in making canals and locks, would be a desirable and valuable acquisition, but such a person may not be attainable in this country; if so, it has occurred to your committee, that probably the defect might be supplied, if the person to whom the general direction shall be committed was to select two or three of our most ingenious and best informed carpenters, and repair with them to view the works in Pennsylvania and Virginia, with a critical and close attention. Canals and locks are already formed there, and little doubt can be entertained but that every information which gentlemen are capable of communicating will be afforded with alacrity; and your committee have too good an opinion of their countrymen to apprehend, that if your superintendant is a man of genius, and the mechanics who accompany him men of approved reputation in their professions, they would not after such an inspection be able to fulfil the wishes of their employers with satisfaction and credit to both.”