99 On the Inland Navigation of 



artificial navigation would speedily restore the equilibrium 

 between these counties in the valley of the St. Lawrence and 

 those in the west. An act has passed the Legislature of the 

 state of New York, authorizing the formation of a chartered 

 company to effect this communication, and the commissioners 

 therein appointed are engaged in repeating and extending the 

 original surveys with a view to attain exact estimates of the 

 cost. Some of the natural circumstances are extremely favour- 

 able to the formation of this canal ; the supply of water from 

 the Black River, a tributary of Lake Ontario, and from Canada 

 Creek, a branch of the Mohawk, is exuberant ; the former 

 stream is itself navigable for boats for a considerable part of 

 the distance, and requires little more than a towing path 

 (unless steam-boats should be found more advantageous) to 

 make it a canal ; and all the necessary materials are to be 

 found in abundance. On the other hand, the elevation of the 

 summit is very great, the whole amount of rise and fall being 

 nearly sixteen hundred feet. Such, however, is the fertility of 

 the country that will contribute the trade, and such the value 

 of its pine forests which will instantly furnish a profitable article 

 of commerce, that we feel assured that, even if locks be em- 

 ployed to overcome the elevation, a large interest will accrue 

 upon the investment of the capital necessary to complete this 

 navigation ; while, if the resources of mechanics furnish any 

 cheaper mode of obtaining a change of level, it must be pro- 

 digiously lucrative. The success of the Erie canal is in truth 

 an earnest that this cannot fail to be not only useful to the 

 country, but profitable to those who execute it. It is however 

 yet questionable whether it will be possible to obtain capital 

 for the accomplishment of this important undertaking. The 

 state has in some measure decided that it will not for some 

 years to come undertake any new enterprises ; the country 

 this canal is intended to benefit, is, from the causes we have 

 stated, much impoverished ; such too is the demand for capi- 

 tal in other parts of the States, to be employed in the innume- 

 rable branches of industry which the progress of internal im- 

 provement has called into existence, that little inducement 

 exists to divert it to the accomplishment of enterprises of this 

 character. Surplus wealth, beyond what is invested in lands 



