Ten Days in Ohio. 243 



above tide water in the Hudson River at Albany. Connected wkh 

 this level are three small lakes, comprising an aggregate area of three 

 hundred and fifty acres. These lakes form a natural reservoir, which 

 prevents a sudden rise of the water in the level, from the occurrence 

 of rains and swelling of the streams which flow into it, while the 

 great expanse of the surface will furnish a large amount of water 

 to meet any extraordinary demand which may be occasioned by ac- 

 cidental causes, or a press of business on the canal, without dimin- 

 ishing materially the depth. One of these lakes, called the sum- 

 mit lake, near three fourths of a mile in length, forms part of the 

 canal. The towing path across it is constructed partly on floating 

 bridges, made of light timber, dowelled together, so as to form a 

 perfect floor, secured in their proper positions by means of long 

 piles driven into the bottom of the lake, and rising above its surface, 

 and partly by throwing up a bank along a projecting part of the shore 

 between the bridges. The depth of the water, and the marshy char- 

 acter of the shore and the bottom, prevented the formation of a tow 

 path of earth along those parts of the lake where the bridges are used. 

 The waters of this lake were formerly discharged northwardly through 

 a small outlet into the Little Cuyahoga, and thence into the main 

 river. A swamp extended from the head of the lake to the main 

 branch of the Muskingum, here called the Tuscarawas, the highest 

 part of which, on the line of the canal, was about four feet above 

 the surface of the lake. In order to obtain the full volume of the 

 Tuscarawas, in dry seasons, as a feeder to the summit level, that 

 level, and consequently the surface of the lake, were reduced about 

 five feet below its original elevation. This little lake, situated on 

 the summit, between the waters of the St. Lawrence and the Mis- 

 sissippi, elevated nearly a thousand feet above the ocean, and skirt- 

 ed on its western side by a range of hills, rising one hundred and 

 fifty feet higher, is an interesting feature in the formation of the 

 country, which, in the vicinity of this summit, seems to be peculiarly 

 well fitted for the passage of a canal, and for furnishing it with a con- 

 stant supply of water. The main branch of the Muskingum, here 

 a small river, but remarkable for the uniform quantity of water flow- 

 ing in it at all seasons of the year, being never less than one thou- 

 sand eight hundred cubic feet per minute, furnishes the principal 

 supply of water to this summit." 



" From the south end of the Portage summit level, the canal de- 

 scends along the valley of the Muskingum, one hundred and two 



