CANAL. 131 



to his village, a distance of 150 miles, would cost 

 450 to convey by land to Whitehall, a distance of 

 of 70 miles. This great deduction must render 

 the goods proportionally cheap. 



The truth is, that as a canal extends in length, 

 it embraces in a kind of geometrical ratio, a 

 greater or wider extent of countrj^, and diffuses 

 correspondent blessings. Every man residing 

 within a day's journey of the canal, is for all use- 

 ful purposes brought to that distance from Alba- 

 ny, with the exception of the price of transporta- 

 tion from the point of the canal which he touches 

 to that city, and the time consumed in the convey- 

 ance. 



When this work was first proposed to President 

 Jefferson, in 1809, he pronounced it impracticable 

 at the present time, and declared that it was a 

 century too soon to make the attempt. Why this 

 great misjudgment occurred to this great man, 

 and to many <y*her wise men, must be imputed to 

 their overlooking important facilities, and to thei;- 

 indiscriminate application of past events to pre- 

 sent times, withbut taking into consideration im- 

 portant dissimilarities. A canal can be made 

 with infinitely more facility in a region of secon- 

 dary formation, than in one of primary. Granite, 

 .ornite, gneiss, and mica slate, do not exist ex 

 fcpt fortuitously, and the prevailing rocks present 



