Internal Improvements. 61 



bling stones, or pieces of rocks detached from a fixed 

 foundation, and ripples, which may be termed rapids 

 in contradistinction from the pools, or deep gently 

 flowing water above and below them. As it is to the 

 ripples that most attention is due, there being above 

 20 in the distance of 95 miles, it is necessary to men- 

 tion their nature more particularly : — they appear like 

 so many bars running across the river ; they are prin- 

 cipally formed of clay and gravel ; and, as the volume 

 of water is always very great, in passing these bars it 

 flows with a rapidity in proportion to the obstruction. 

 So easily may these ripples be removed, that it has not 

 been uncommon for boatmen to dig a channel through 

 them, in order that they might ascend. Perhaps the 

 best way to remedy these defects would be to raise 

 wing walls wherever there is a ripple, that is, to dimi- 

 nish the width, and of course increase the depth of the 

 channel ; if this were done, the navigation would be 

 so complete, that boats of ten or twelve tons might 

 ascend the river in its lowest state in summer. 



2. Should the legislature think proper to improve 

 this river, the improvement should be made from the 

 state line, with the stream ; because by the lower im- 

 provement, the general navigation would not be so 

 soon brought into action, as by the upper ; because 

 the great utility of the work will be to draw into our 

 state, the produce of the south west part of New York ; 

 and, because the work itself can in this manner be best 

 accomplished. 



I have now before me a statement of the nature and 

 extent of the obstructions to be removed, in the first 

 100 miles, as well as an estimate of the expense of re- 



