OF THE RIVER SAINT LAWRENCE. 



291 



Provincial Government has been enabled to offer encouragement to manufactures on canal 

 banks; and arrangements were made, in the first instance, for a considerable supply of 

 water for manufacturing purposes, which, in several instances, has been carried to a very 

 great and injurious limit: as, for instance, on the Lachine Canal, the velocity in which 

 has become a serious inconvenience to the traffic; so much so, that a large expenditure 

 has been rendered necessary during the present winter, for the enlargement of the cross 

 section through the rock cutting already mentioned near Lachine. 



WHARVES AN I) CRIBWO R K. 



Having now described the leading public works which have been undertaken in the 

 Provinces, in connection with the navigation of the St. Lawrence, the description would 

 be incomplete if there was any omission of the numerous wharves which have been estab- 

 lished upon the various rivers and lakes extending from the lower St. Lawrence upwards. 

 These wharves, in consequence of the great cost, and the difficulties attending the con- 

 struction of masonry in such localities, have been for the most part built of what is locally 

 known on the continent of America as "cribwork;" and as the work seems to be almost 

 peculiar to this side the Atlantic, and almost unknown on the other, it may be proper to 

 give a description of the character of the work ; and to render this clear, some sketches 

 are appended of cribwork, which may be considered fair examples of the ordinary mode of 

 construction. It will be perceived that this cribwork consists of a heavy grillage, or frame- 

 work of whole timbers, treenailed and dovetailed into each other. The work is put down 

 in sections, and is built floating in the water, and having been brought into the intended 

 site, it is loaded with stone, which, acting as ballast, settles it into its place. After finally 

 adjusting the cribwork to its proper position, stone is added to give weight and stability 

 to the mass, which may be taken as having a specific gravity as compared with water of 

 one and eight-tenths. This cribwork is found to be much more durable than could have 

 at first been supposed, there being wharves now standing in the tideway at Quebec which 

 are said to have been built upwards of eighty years ago. Many of the wharves built in 

 the rivers of Canada and the United States are in the form of jetties, projecting at right 

 angles to the shore, where they are exposed to very severe pressure from the floating 

 bordage ice. And although there are some instances which could be quoted of cribwork 

 being moved by the ice, it was generally to be traced to the want of stone ballast, which 

 is the chief point to be attended to in the construction of these works. 



The timber employed is of all kinds, although pine culls, as they are called (which is a 

 third class timber), is chiefly xxsed, in logs of all sizes, and of all lengths. 



The average cost of cribwork at Montreal is $1.75 per cubic yard; at Quebec it has 



