PROJECTED NEW BARGE CANAL OF STATE OF NEW YORK. 755 



by a new route. Ijai'i>e jiortioiis of the Cliaiuplain and Oswego canals 

 also follow new locations. 



The existing canals may be called "" hillside " canals, as they go 

 through the open country and along the upper portions of the valleys 

 above the rivers, from which they religiously keep away to the great- 

 est extent possible. The new and greater canal is put in the valley 

 bottoms and in the water courses and lakes wherever practicable. 



The principal advantages of the valley-bottom location in the case 

 of the greater canal are cheapness of construction, greater freedom 

 and ease of movement by boats in the wider waters of the water 

 courses and lakes, greater rapidity and less cost of transportation, 

 greater immunity from accidents that disable the canal, and less cost 

 of maintenance. With the small canal as originally built and as sub- 

 sequently enlarged to its present size it would not have been econom- 

 ical, with the knowledge and means then possessed, to have built the 

 dams and locks required to canalize the Mohawk and other rivers and 

 to excavate the large channels required for flood discharge. With 

 the large barge canals now proposed this canalization is not only 

 desirable, but is cheaper than it would be to utilize the existing lines 

 of the canals. 



The existing canal is a " tow-path " canal, built with the distinct 

 idea that all business on it should be done by animal towing. In the 

 new and larger canal no tow path is provided, and it is expected that 

 navigation through it will be by means of steamboats properly 

 adapted to it and towing other motorless cargo boats, in accordance 

 with the custom whicli has been developed and is now in vogue on the 

 Erie Canal to a certain extent. It is this change in the method of 

 navigation which permits the valley bottom, lake, and water-course 

 location to be adopted. 



Long years before the construction of the Erie C^anal the earl}'^ 

 pioneers had found a water highway extending nearly acreoss the 

 State of New York, and it was largely used by those who settled 

 the western portion of the State. It was not })erfect, involving, as 

 it did, many portages about falls and rapids and from one river to 

 another, and the stemming of swift river currents, with bars and 

 shoals, but it fulfilled a most useful function. 



The Erie Canal Avhen built did not follow tliis ])ioiuH>r route for 

 reasons stated; bu.t it is a remarkable circumstance that now, after 

 nearly a century of disuse, this old pioneer route is to be again 

 adopted and the new and larger barge canal is to folh)w it without 

 material deviation. This old pioneer route followed wp the Mohawk 

 River, with portages about the falls and bad rapids, to the vicinity of 

 Rome; thence a portage was made aci'oss to the waters of Wood 

 Creek; thence it followed down tlie watei's of this small stream to 

 Oneida Lake.' On across the lake it went and down the Oneida River 



