RIVERS. 



1§1 



iaw that empowers the company to undertake the 

 business. The sum agreed upon to complete the 

 navigation was fifty thousand pounds sterling, di* 

 vided into five hundred shares, of one hundred 

 pounds each, to be paid by instalments. 



More than half a million of dollars have been ex- 

 pended upon this great enterprise. Of the whole 

 distance of inland navigation, west of the city of 

 Washington, computed at 800 miles, including the 

 main branch of Patowmac, and such of its tributary 

 streams as are susceptible of improvement by navi- 

 gation, may now be counted upon as completed, at 

 least partially completed, about three hundred and 

 sixty miles, viz* 



The main branch of Patowmac, from the 

 tide, to New Creek, 17 miles above Cum- 

 berland, 23# 



The Shenandoah from its junction with Pa-t 



towmac, 1Q% 



The Monocacy, S§ 



. There are still obstructions between Harper's 

 Ferry and New Creek, which forbid the use of 

 that part of the river more than two or three months 

 in ordinary years ; but from Harper's Ferry to the 

 tide, and for about 75 miles of the Shenandoah, and 

 20 of the Monocacy, may be safely calculated on 

 tolerable navigation, from four to six months in the 

 year. ' 



The passage of this river through the Blue Ridge, 

 which is a very grand sight, shall be desribed in a. 

 subsequent chapter. 



