INTRODUCTION. 3 



ductive bottom lands. As far back as 1659 B.C., Sesostris opened canals for transporting 

 merchandise, running at right angles to the Nile between Memphis and the sea. Julius 

 Ca?sar, Caligula, and Nero, each attempted to build a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth. 

 The Mceris Canal, some 40 leagues in length, was finished about 1385 B.C., and conveyed 

 water to a great lake during the wet season and returned it by an irrigation system during 

 periods of drought. The Royal Canal of Babylon, constructed about 600 B.C., is one 

 of the earliest of whose existence there is proof. The Canal of Marius, 102 B.C., connected 

 the lower Rhone with the Mediterranean, while Alexander built a canal at Alexandria, 

 332 B.C., connecting the city with the Nile. The Tiber was cut to the sea by Claudius 

 when the mouth of that river was blockaded by the enemy, and later emperors con- 

 nected the sea with the interior by navigable canals. Charlemagne in the eighth century 

 began a canal from the Rhine to the Danube, but it was not completed until the early 

 part of the nineteenth century. This canal now connects the Atlantic with the Black 

 Sea. In the eighth century a canal was built in China 650 miles in length. In order 

 to overcome the changes in the level of this canal, the boats were drawn up or lowered 

 down inclined planes, a plan not yet extinct. 



American Canals and Rivers. Under the. advantages of river navigation many 

 cities have been greatly developed, although much of their growth and prosperity pre- 

 ceded the introduction of works of improvement, which are matters of comparatively 

 recent date. The invention of the movable dam was the chief factor in developing 

 these conditions, although the invention of the lock four or five centuries earlier had 

 rendered it possible to greatly improve navigation both in natural and artificial water- 

 ways. Rapid strides were taken in the canalization of natural watercourses in France 

 upon the advent of the movable dam, and canals, which had become quite common, 

 began to decline. In this country, however, river improvement was not actively under- 

 taken until within a very recent period, and modern ideas for canalization have not 

 yet secured that recognition their merits deserve, there being less than 100 miles of 

 slackwater formed by movable dams and probably not more than 1000 miles of canalized 

 rivers, all told, in the United States. 



Prior to the invention of the locomotive and the construction of railroads, the State 

 governments had given aid and encouragement to the establishment and maintenance 

 of systems of artificial canals between the West and' the seaboard. Millions of dollars 

 were expended and hundreds of miles of canals were constructed and operated. These 

 were mainly independent of the natural waterways and have been but poorly maintained, 

 and in some cases, abandoned entirely. While the enormous development of the railway 

 systems has caused a loss and a reduction in the operation of canals, there has been an 

 increase of public interest in the rivers as avenues of commerce, and within the past 

 twenty years the National Government has made extensive appropriations for the 

 improvement and utilization of many important streams. However, no systematic 

 plan applicable to several rivers forming an extended route of transportation has been 

 adopted, each river having its own system of improvements. 



