Ten Days in Ohio. 245 



seventeen feet above the level of Lake Erie ; four hundred and 

 thirteen feet above the level of low water in the Ohio at Portsmouth, 

 eight hundred and eighty one feet above the level of tide water in 

 Hudson, and seventy eight feet below the level of the Portage sum- 

 mit." " Immediately north of the ridge which here divides the wa- 

 ters of the Muskingum from those of the Scioto, is situated the great 

 Reservoir, from which the summit level and the lower levels of the 

 canal, extending to Newark in one direction, and to the junction of 

 the main line with the Columbus feeder in the other, during the dry 

 season, derive their principal supply of water. This reservoir ex- 

 tends from west to east nearly eight miles. Its medium breadth is 

 about half a mile, covering, when the surface is six feet above top 

 water line in the canal, an area of nearly two thousand five hundred 

 acres. It is capable of furnishing the summit level, and the other 

 levels dependent upon it, with water for a period of three months, 

 without any aid from streams ; and the water of occasional summer 

 rains, which flows into it through various channels from the surround- 

 ing country, greatly increases its capacity for supplying the canal. 

 This great reservoir occupies a natural basin, the bottom of which 

 is a tenacious soil, composed principally of clay. This basin was 

 surrounded by higher ground, except on the north west side, where 

 it was low and flat. A large portion of its area was originally occu- 

 pied by a chain of small lakes and an extensive marsh. In order to 

 confine the water in this basin, an artificial bank of about four miles 

 in length, two of which also form the towing path bank of the canal, 

 was raised across the low ground on the north west side ; and the 

 waters of the south fork, taken from the stream several miles above, 

 are conducted by a feeder of about six miles in length, on a higher 

 level, into the reservoir, near the south west end of which the feeder 

 passes over the canal, on an aqueduct, and falls into the reservoir." 



" In order to insure an adequate supply of water to the summit, 

 it was necessary to cut down the ridge, which here divides the wa- 

 ters of the Scioto, from those of the Muskingum, so low as to per- 

 mit the water of the reservoir to be drawn into the summit level of 

 the canal. This required a deep cut of near three miles in length, 

 commencing near the feeder aqueduct, one hundred and ninety miles 

 from Cleveland and extending thence southwardly. The deepest 

 part of this cut near the centre is about thirty four feet, gradually di- 

 minishing in depth towards each end. The quantity of earth exca- 

 vated amounts to near a million of cubic yards, and is composed of 



