Internal Navigation. 149 



Dams on the outlets of these lakes would afford the 

 best water powers for mills or any kind of machinery. 

 By drawing the water from under the ice in winter, it 

 will be so warm as not to freeze on the wheels as was 

 the case at the pond on Muskonnekonk. 



Such dams at all the lakes and ponds would not injure 

 any interests of the country, and using them for 

 mills would also tend to render the waters in the rivers 

 uniform in their quantity. The confining so large a 

 part of the waters that make the great floods, would al- 

 so be of important advantage and safety to the farms on 

 the banks of the rivers. The free navigation down the 

 rivers, would be abundantly cheaper than by way of ca- 

 nals and locks. 



When I have with great pleasure travelled the mar- 

 gins of these lakes, to view the advantages of such dams, 

 I have admired how very perfectly all our rivers and 

 their tributary streams were created for such a mode of 

 improvement, and exclaimed with the poet Cowper — 



" God made the country, man the town." 



It may be asked, what kinds of produce are to be ex- 

 pected from the heads of those waters, if the recom- 

 mended improvements in their navigation were made ? 

 I answer, 



1. Salt, 



2. Plaster of Paris, 



3. Lumber of all descriptions, 



4. Grain, in proportion to the cleared lands, 



5. Stone Coal tor fuel for the city, 



