[10] The figures for the years 1860 to 1890 are taken from the "Report of the Committee on Canals of New York State," 1900, General Francis V. Greene, chairman; and those for 1900 and 1903 from the "Annual Report of Superintendent of Public Works, New York State," 1903.

[11] "The St Lawrence River and the Great Lakes whose waters flow through it into the Atlantic form a continuous waterway extending from the Fond du Lac, at the head of Lake Superior, to the Straits of Belle Isle, a distance of 2,384 miles.... Emptying into the St Lawrence ... are the Ottawa and Richlieu Rivers, the former bringing it into communication with the immense timber forests of Ontario, and the latter connecting it with Lake Champion in the United States. These rivers were the thoroughfares in peace and the base lines in war for the Indian tribes long before the white man appeared in the Western Hemisphere.... The early colonists found them the convenient and almost the only channels of intercourse among themselves and with the home country.... The St Lawrence was navigable for sea-going vessels as far as Montreal, but between Montreal and the foot of Lake Ontario there was a succession of rapids separated by navigable reaches.... The head of navigation on the Ottawa River is the city of Ottawa.... Between this city and the mouth of the river there are several impassable rapids. The Richlieu was also so much obstructed at various points as to be unavailable for navigation.... The canal system of Canada ... has been established to overcome these obstructions by artificial channels at various points to render freely navigable the national routes of transportation."—"Highways of Commerce," issued by the Bureau of Statistics, Department of State, Washington.

[12] The use of a larger type of canal boat is generally regarded as an essential part of the resuscitation scheme. But of the narrow boats now in active service in the canals of the United Kingdom there are from 10,000 to 11,000. What is to be done with these? If they are scrap-heaped, and fresh boats substituted, we increase still further the sum total of the outlay the scheme will involve.

[13] At the Society of Arts' Conference on Canals, in 1888, Mr L. F. Vernon-Harcourt said:—"The statistics show that great caution must be exercised in the selection of canal routes for improvement, if they are to prove a commercial success, and that the scope for such schemes is strictly limited. Any attempt at a general revival and improvement of the canal system throughout England cannot prove financially successful, as local canals, through thinly populated agricultural districts, could not compete with railways. These routes alone should be selected for enlargement of waterway which lead direct from the sea to large and increasing towns like the proposed canal from the Bristol Channel to Birmingham, or which, like the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, are suitably set for the conveyance of coal and general bulky goods to populous districts. One or two through routes to London from manufacturing centres, or from coal-mining districts, might have a prospect of success, provided the existing canals along the route could be acquired at a small cost, and the necessary improvement works were not heavy."

[14] There are even those who argue that the resuscitated canals should be toll free.

INDEX