ATO Canadian Record of Science. 
of more than a year to guide him, as well as a personal 
acquaintance with the details of the work, made up for the 
Ordnance Department in London his own estimate of the 
cost of the canal. It reached the sum of £463,899 stg. 
This vast increase over the estimate of the commission of 
1826 created an intense stir in the department, and resulted 
in orders being sent out to Col, By for the immediate stop- 
page of all work wherever practicable, and in the appoint- 
ment of a commission, composed of Sir Jas. Kempt, Col. 
Edw. Fanshaw and Col. Lewis, to investigate the character 
of the work and the cause of the extraordinary expend- 
iture. This committee, on the 28th June, 1828, reported, 
on the whole very favorable to Col. By, and recommended 
the canal to have a depth of 5 feet at the lowest water and 
the locks to be of a size to admit a steamer 108 feet long 
and 30 feet wide. On this report the size of the locks was 
fixed at 134 feet by 33 feet, and the work pressed on with 
Col. By’s accustomed vigor. 
After much difficulty and repeated failures at the works 
at Hogsback and Dow’s Swamp, near Bytown, and great 
loss of life at some points, particularly Kingston Mills, where 
about 500 laborers died from malaria, necessitating the 
raising of the dams in order to flood the extensive swamps 
of the Cataraqui River, the Canal was ready for opening in 
August, 1831. Another delay however took place. Mr. 
Merrick, of Merrickville, cut off the water at that point by 
adam in order to make repairs to his mills. This act 
raised very serious legal questions which were not settled 
before the winter set in. In consequence, it was not until 
the 29th May, 1832, that the first steamboat the “ Pumper” 
with Col. By and his family on board, passed through from 
Ottawa to Kingston, and the Canal was formally opened to 
traffic. 
On the 8th January, 1831, in writing to Col. Glegg, for 
the information of the Commander of the Forces, Col. By 
mentions that his estimate of the cost of the work as pre- 
sented to the Imperial Commission in June, 1828, was 
