10 Inland Navigation of the 



affords a deep and bold navigation from the Canada frontier to 

 its head at the village of Whitehall; at this place commences 

 the *' Champlain Canal" of the state of New York. This 

 navigation receives its waters from the Hudson River by means 

 of a weir thrown across it at Fort Edward. The summit ex- 

 tends north from this twelve miles ; the fall towards the Hud- 

 son is thirty feet ; towards Lake Champlain fifty-four feet ; 

 the whole length of the canal is about twenty-four miles. 

 From Fort Edward the passage was at first effected by deepen- 

 ing the bed of the Hudson, and by a few lateral cuts as far as 

 Saratoga, where a lateral canal commenced, extending a dis- 

 tance of seventeen miles to Waterford, at the confluence of 

 the Mohawk and Hudson. Subsequent improvements have, 

 however, been made, so as to form an entire canal from 

 Fort Edward to Albany, crossing the Mohawk just below the 

 Falls of the Cohos. From Albany the Hudson is navigable 

 without interruption, except for a few weeks in the year by 

 ice, for vessels of one hundred tons : ships of five hundred 

 tons may ascend as far as the city of Hudson, one hundred and 

 fifty miles from the sea ; and the largest line-of-battle ship may 

 find a channel, nowhere less than a thousand yards in breadth, 

 as far as Newburg, sixty-five miles above the city of New York. 

 Thus, then, three separate navigations may be considered as 

 centring in the city of New York, two of which extend to 

 the extreme northern frontier of the United States ; that by 

 the Hudson, Northern Canal, and Lake Champlain, is com- 

 pleted ; that by way of Newhaven to the Connecticut River in a 

 state of great forwardness; the third, intended to open a passage 

 to Massachusetts Bay, and to avoid the dangerous and exposed 

 voyage around Cape Cod, and the shoals of Nantucket, is 

 seriously contemplated, and practicable at a low expense. 

 From New York to the south a chain of inland communica- 

 tion has been investigated, (and one of the most important 

 parts nearly completed,) by which a vessel may pass safe from 

 storms, and out of the reach of a maritime enemy so far as the 

 Gulf of Mexico. When the whole of the links of this chain 

 will be completed it is difficult to predict. Many parts of it 

 are, however, called for to facilitate the local traffic of the dis- 

 tricts in which they are situated ; others again are important 



