UNITED STATES^ 



inches depth of water running in it. The tow^i 

 Chute, or southern arm, which may be two hundred 

 yards wide, would, on account of the trouble or dif- 

 ficulty of rowing boats, which have landed at the 

 mouth of Bear-Grass creek, which empties in just 

 above the town of Louisville, some distance up the 

 river, in order to get them into the current of either 

 the middle or main Chute, be preferable to the 

 other two arms, were it not dry the most of the 

 year. During a fresh, which happened about five 

 years since, said to be eight feet higher than any ob- 

 served prior to it, the southern or town Chute was 

 sounded, by a person of accuracy and intelligence^ 

 and the water found to be thirty-five feet deep. 

 The cutting of a canal from the mouth of Bear- 

 Grass, which is on the upper side of the rapids, to 

 below the reef of rocks, which is not quite two miles, 

 and the ground a gentle declivity, has been long con- 

 templated, in order to make the river, in this place, 

 passable, at all times, without difficulty ; but, as the 

 river is very shallow on the Louisville shore, for at 

 least four miles above the mouth of Bear-Grass, it 

 is supposed, that the opposite shore will be found pre- 

 ferable for this undertaking, both on account of the 

 main body of water pressing to that shore, and the 

 natural situation of the ground through which the 

 canal must pass. Time, however, will show, to 

 which the preference will be given, as, doubtless^ 

 Ihe day is not far distant, v^'hen this impediment in 

 the navigation of one of the finest rivers in the world, 

 will be removed, by cutting a canal en either one 

 side or rhe ©ther ©f it* 



