WESIEUN CANAL. 1* 



may either descend by water into Lake Ontario 

 by tlie way of Oswego, or you may proceed by 

 the way of Three liiver Point to the Oneida Lake, 

 and, pursuing the waters of Wood Creek, re-enter 

 the Great Canal a few miles west of Rome — thus 

 performing, in the latter case, a voyage of circum- 

 navigation round an immense island — oryou may 

 ascend the Junction river, formed by the Canan- 

 daigua outlet and Mud Creek, as far as Lyons — 

 or you may proceed up the Seneca river to the 

 Cayuga lake as far as this place, which is distant 

 about twenty-eight miles from the head waters oi* 

 tlie Stisquehannah — or 3'ou may continue your 

 course up the Seneca river through the locks and 

 canals of the Seneca Lock Navigation Company, 

 as far as Geneva, and from tiience 40 miles 10 the 

 southern extremity of the Seneca Lake. Who 

 would have thought of sucli various and vast fa- 

 cilities of communication created by the W^estern 

 Canal ? From Schenectady to the south ei)d of 

 Cayuga or Seneca Lakes, you may proceed by 

 an uninterrupted navigation to the extent of near 

 250 miles — which will be enlarged when the canal 

 reaches the Genesee river, forty miles through, the 

 interior of the most fertile country- in the world. 

 Imagination, in this case, lags behind reality, 

 and the utn:ost stretch of poetic vision becomes 

 embodied into existcr.ce. J passed from Monte- 



