[44] The setting-pole might be twenty-five feet long, heavily shod with iron at one end and at the other fitted with a rounded knob. This pole was dropped into the water at the bow of the boat, and the boatman having put his shoulder to the other end of it, facing the stern, and pushing with all his might, walked to the farther end, cleats being fastened to the deck to give him foothold. By the time he reached the stern the barge had advanced exactly its own length, when he withdrew the pole, dragged it to the bow and repeated the process. Two or three men on each side of the boat would be similarly employed, and so the barge dragged its slow length along, much after the fashion of the horse-boat, only that the horse tugged at a stationary post while the men pushed from it.
[45] Kingsford’s “Canadian Canals” (Toronto, 1865) contains an elaborate history of the Welland and the financial difficulties that attended its construction. The Imperial Government seem to have contributed some £55,555 towards it, while stock was taken in the enterprise by individuals in the United States for £69,625, and by English capitalists, £30,137. The first vessels to pass through the canal are said to have been the schooners Ann and Jane and R. H. Boughton, in November, 1829. On the 5th of July, 1841, during the first session of the United Parliament of Canada, Lord Sydenham announced that Her Majesty had confirmed the bill for transferring the Welland to the Provincial Government.
Mr. McLennan states that the first Canadian vessel to pass through the Welland was the propeller Ireland, Captain Patterson.
[46] The schooner Niagara, built by Muirs, of Port Dalhousie, was sent to Liverpool with 20,000 bushels of wheat about the year 1860. Captain Gaskin, of Kingston, built several sea-going vessels, one of which he took over to Liverpool himself and sold her there. But experience has proved that vessels suited to the navigation of the lakes will never be able to compete successfully with ocean steamships of 10,000 tons.
[47] “Report of Dominion Railways and Canals, 1895,” p. 256.
[48] “Montreal Board of Trade Report, 1897,” p. 70.
[49] Vide page 26 of said Report.
[50] “Buffalo Board of Trade Report, 1895,” p. 98.
[51] “United States Deep Waterways Commission Report, 1896.”
[52] “Chicago Board of Trade Report, 1895.”