PAPERS OX GEOLOGY AXD GEOGRAPHY 377 



history might thus have been one to which the supporters 

 of the St. Lawi-ence Eiver project might point as evi- 

 dencing the vahie of water-way competition in the carry- 

 ing of the snrphis products of a cereal region. 



But such is not the story of the Hennepin Canal. 

 Authorized to extend the influence of the Illinois and 

 Michigan Canal westward years after that canal had 

 fallen into decay, authorized to combat the restraining 

 influence of high rail rates when those rates were stead- 

 ily decreasing, it stands in all of its length of seventy-five 

 miles, its depth of seven feet, its width of eighty feet, 

 its thirty-seven locks with their ''ever watchfully, hope- 

 fully waiting'' keepers, ready for the launches, house- 

 boats and pleasure craft that its chief engineer had 

 prophesied, — a seven and one-thii"d million dollar monu- 

 ment to the persistence of local politicians and their in- 

 fluence upon filling the '^ pork-barrel" of the Eivers and 

 Harbors Appropriations a little more full. Yet I would 

 not have you think the waterway a useless one. The 

 swampy region of summit level is better drained because 

 the canal receives its tile lines; the health of the ad- 

 jacent inhabitants is somewhat improved through the 

 bathing facilities afforded by its water section; its pisca- 

 torial content attracts the local disciples of Izak Walton; 

 its ice in winter maintains an industry that affords the 

 total return for the capital invested and results in an 

 average annual income of approximately three hundred 

 and fifty dollars : its thirty-seven locks give employment 

 to as many keepers in these days when unemployment 

 is a national concern, and canal maintenance augments 

 that force materially ; it staunchly maintains in the minds 

 of its lock-keepers, if not in the minds of the cereal grow- 

 ers along it, visions of crowding craft going eastward, 

 going westward in the day when the Hennepin canal is 

 joined up with the waters of Lake Michigan by a water- 

 way of equal section and the original plan of its con- 

 ceivers is fulfilled. 



