278 Mr. Thomas Commerford Martin [June 19, 



lifetime ; but now the useful energy of the cataract is made cheaply 

 and immediately available, every day in the year, to hundreds and 

 thousands, even millions of people, in an endless variety of ways. 



We must not omit from our survey the Erie Canal, in the revival 

 and greater utilisation of which as an important highway of commerce 

 Niagara power is expected to play no mean part. In competition 

 with the steam railway, canals have suffered greatly the last fifty 

 years. In the United States, out of 4468 miles of canal built at a 

 cost of 40,000,000/., about one-half has been abandoned and not much 

 of the rest pays expenses. Yet canals have enormous carrying 

 capacity, and a single boat will hold as much as twenty freight cars. 

 The New York State authorities have agreed to conditions by which 

 Niagara energy can be used to propel the canal boats at the rate of 

 4Z. per horse-power per year. Where steam-boat haulage for 242 

 tons of freight now costs about 6^cZ. a boat mile, it is estimated that 

 electric haulage will cost not to exceed b\d. ; while, with the energy 

 from Niagara at only 4Z. per horse-power per year, it will cost much 

 less. Some two years ago the first attempt was made in the United 

 States on the Erie Canal, with the canal boat " F. W. Hawley," when 

 the trolley system was used with the motor on the boat, as it is on an 

 electric car, driving the propeller as if it were the car wheels. 

 Another plan is that of hauling the boat from the tow-path, and that 

 is what is now being done with the electric system of Mr. Eichard 

 Lamb on the Erie Canal at Tonawanda, near Niagara. Imagine an 

 elevator shaft working lengthwise instead of vertically. There is 

 placed on poles, a heavy fixed cable on which the motor truck rests, 

 and a lighter traction cable is also strung that is taken up and paid 

 out by a sheave, as the motor propels itself along and pulls the canal 

 boat to which it is attached. If the boats come from opposite direc- 

 tions they simply exchange motors, just as they might mules or 

 locomotives, and go on without delay. 



On its property at Niagara the Power Company has already begun 

 the development of the new village called Echota, a pretty Indian 

 name which signifies " Place of Refuge." I believe it is Mr. W. D. 

 Howells, our American novelist, who in kindred spirit speaks of the 

 " Repose " of Niagara. It was laid out by Mr. John Bogart, formerly 

 State Engineer, and is intended to embody all that is best in sanita- 

 tion, lighting and urban comfort. It does not need the eye of faith to 

 see here the beginning of one of the busiest, cleanest, prettiest and 

 healthiest localities in the Union. The working man whose factory is 

 not poisoned by smoke and dust, whose home was designed by distin- 

 guished architects, whose streets and parks were laid out by celebrated 

 engineers, and whose leisure is spent within sight and sound of lovely 

 Niagara, has little cause for grumbling at his lot. 



The American company has also preempted the great utilisation 

 of the Canadian share of Niagara's energy. The plan for this work 

 proposes the erection of two power houses of a total ultimate capacity 

 of 125,000 horse-power. Each power house is fed by its own canal 



