290 



ON THE HYDROLOGY OF THE BASIN 



miles above Quebec. At Sorel, the direction of the route is a little to the west of south. 

 The river has an average rate of about a mile and a half per hour, and in low stages of the 

 river it occasionally runs at the rate of four miles an hour in certain localities ; besides 

 which, at St. Ours, there is a decided rapid, having a fall of five feet, where a lock and 

 dam have been introduced, the dimensions of which admit of vessels one hundred and 

 eighty-five feet long, and forty-four feet wide, with a draft of seven feet, and at Chambly 

 another rapid exists, amounting to a seventy-four foot fall, extending through eleven and 

 a half miles of the river. This rapid is overcome by a canal and nine locks, the dimen- 

 sions of the canal being sixty feet top-water, thirty-six feet at bottom, and eight feet 

 depth ; and the locks are one hundred and twenty feet long, twenty-four feet wide at top, 

 and twenty-two and a half feet at low water, and will admit of vessels one hundred and 

 ten feet long, twenty-two feet wide, and seven feet draft. The navigation, which extends 

 up to Lake Champlain, which is reached at about eighty miles from Sorel, meets with no 

 further obstacle, and is continued free through Lake; Champlain to the New York Cham- 

 plain Canal, at Whitehall, where it has only to overcome a height of fifty-five feet before 

 commencing to fall to the tidewater of the Hudson, at Troy. 



IMPROVEMENTS TO THE NAVIGATION OF THE INLAND W A T E B S F T II E 



NEWCASTLE DISTRICT. 



Above the town of Peterboro, the Otonabeo, for some miles, maintains the character of 

 a fine river, nearly two hundred feet wide, discharging a large supply of water at all sea- 

 sons, and affording admirable sites for factories requiring large power. The river there 

 spreads out into a number of lakes, which are the recipients of several considerable 

 streams: some of these navigable, and some, it is stated, capable of being made so at a 

 very small cost. The connection with this district is of considerable importance, on ac- 

 count of the large quantity of timber abounding in that section, and the valuable nature 

 of the country for agricultural purposes. Some improvements have been commenced, but 

 no very extensive or permanent works executed. Improvements in the Scugog Iliver 

 have been carried on, and a dredging engine employed for the deepening of shoal places. 

 The value of the several reaches of continuous water communication may be considered 

 as created by these limited works, and daily become more manifest. They extend through 

 a distance not less than one hundred and thirty miles; and when the various improvements 

 proposed have been carried out, a great benefit will be extended to a large district of 

 country. 



Among the collateral advantages which have been afforded by the construction of the 

 various canals in Canada, is that afforded by their water power, by means of which tin; 



