148 Internal Navigation: 



the estimation would be perfectly safe at saying half the 

 water that feeds the Delaware and Susquehanna, above the 

 Blue Mountain, may be made subservient to our purpo- 

 ses by such means, and that half of such water would be 

 quite sufficient for the purpose. 



I first took the idea from the stream called Muskonne- 

 konk, in the state of Jersey, which issues out of a large 

 pond or lake, some say 20 miles long, as it turns among 

 the mountains. On the outlet is built a dam, that was 

 about 13 feet high, and what water raised in the pond, 

 was all the head and fall, for a forge and grist and saw 

 mill, that used to run very steady, and keep the stream 

 uniform to the Delaware. 



A larger experiment of the kind was fully tried du- 

 ring the war of the American revolution. The late Ge- 

 ral James Clinton, with whom I was well acquainted, in- 

 formed me, that he first explored the navigation of the 

 upper part of Susquehanna river being appointed to 

 command a division of the army to join General Sulli- 

 van, at Tioga Point, to dislodge some hostile Indians 

 and Canadians. (See the Map.) He cut a road, and 

 marched his army and baggage from the German Flats 

 to the head of Otsego Lake ; there made flat-bottomed 

 canoes, and dammed the outlet of the lake for six weeks, 

 and raised the water so that it made such a rise in the 

 river, as to float them down to Tioga Point, with their 

 munitions of war and provisions. Some years after- 

 wards, he was appointed one of the commissioners on 

 behalf of New York to run the state line to Lake Erie, and 

 pursued the same route and plan to convey his baggage 

 and provisions to Tioga Point. 



