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 country, and difllises 

 correspondent blessings. Every rnan 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 tiie 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. Wh^- this 

 great misjudgment occurred to this great man, 

 and to many other wise men, must be imputed to 

 their overlooking. important facilities, and to tiieir 

 indiscriminate application of past events to pre- 

 sent times, Without taking into cori!?ideration im- 

 portant dissimilarities. A caiial cun be made 

 with infinitely more facility in a region of secon- 

 dary formation, than in one of primary. Granite, 

 sernite, gneiss, and mica slate, do not exist ex- 

 cvpt fortuitously, and the prevailing rocks preser.i 



