214 TEAFFIC ON THE ERIE CANAL. 



is, besides, the Lake Champlain Canal of 79 miles, by 

 which the navigation of the lake Is connected with that 

 of the liver Hudson, making In all 714 miles of canal 

 navigation, and necessary feeders, executed and upheld 

 by the State. In executing this work, a large outlay 

 was for many years Incurred, and Its projectors had much 

 opposition to encounter, and m-any struggles with the 

 purse-holders of the State, before It could be brought into 

 a navigable condition. Now It Is a source of large direct 

 money-revenue to the State, in addition to the numerous 

 indirect benefits which it otherwise confers. The total 

 number of tons of goods of all sorts conveyed along It, in 

 1849, was 2,894,732, and their estimated value about 

 145,000,000 of dollars. The main transit of produce is 

 from west to east, as we should naturally suppose. Thus, 

 in 1849, the tons of wheat and flour conveyed eastward 

 to the Hudson were 434,444, while there were conveyed 

 westward to Buffalo, on the way to other States, only 

 67,966 tons of the same articles. Of the whole traffic, 

 also, of all kinds, 1,266,000 tons came eastward to the 

 Hudson, while only 315,000 tons went westward. The 

 toll varies from 1 to 5 mills (thousandths of a dollar) for 

 1000 lbs. per mile, and the revenue in 1849 amounted to 

 3,250,000 of dollars, of which 2 J millions remained as a 

 clear surplus, after paying all necessary expenses of 

 collection and repairs. 



The importance of this canal to the Western States 

 appears from the fact, that of the whole traffic from the 

 west, (1,226,000 tons) which arrived at the Hudson, 

 768,000 tons had come direct from the Western States. 

 Besides, It is one of the great thoroughfares to the 

 western territory for the poorer classes of emigrants from 

 Europe. For the emigrants who arrive at New York 

 there is a choice of two routes to the west — one by 

 Philadelphia and Pittsburg, the other by Albany and 

 Buffalo. The latter is the cheaper, the easier, and the 



