HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



721 



Moreover, the supposed near approach of the western waters 

 of New York and of Lake Erie is also referred to in this report 

 of 1724, as follows : 



Besides the passage by the hikes, there is a river which comes 

 from the country of the Seneeas and falls into the Oswego river, 

 by which we have an easy carriage into the country without going 

 near Lake Ontario. The head of this river goes near Lake Erie 

 and probably may give a very near passage into that lake and 

 much more advantageous than the way the French are obliged to 

 take by the great falls of Niagara. 



In 1768 Sir Henry Moore, the Colonial Governor, in a message 

 to the Assembly, stated that : 



The obstruction of navigation in the Mohawk river, between 

 Schenectady and Eon Sranwix. occasioned by the falls of Cana- 

 joharie, had been constantly complained of. and that it was obvi- 

 ous to all who were conversant in matters of this kind that the 

 difficulty could be easily remedied by sluices, by the plan of those 

 in the great canal of Languedoc in France, which was made to 

 open a communication between the Atlantic ocean and the 

 Mediterranean. 



In 1788 Elkanah Watson proposed to establish a water com- 

 munication from the Hudson river and Lake Ontario by way of 

 Oneida lake, Oneida river, and Oswego river, his plan being to 

 connect Wood creek with the Mohawk river by a canal and to 

 improve the Mohawk with locks. 



The foregoing quotations show that the possibilities of water 

 transportation had received attention at a very early day. Colden 

 states that Governor Burnet erected a fort and trading houses 

 at the mouth of Oswego river about 1726 " because of its water 

 communication with the country of the Iroquois and for facility 

 of transportation between the lakes and Schenectady, there being 

 but three portages in the whole route and two of them very short." 

 These, no doubt, were the carriages at Little Falls, Wood creek 

 and at Oswego rapids. 



A Swedish traveler in this country in the year 1748 speaks of 

 the near approach of the waters of the Hudson and the St Law- 

 rence. Apparently he supposed there was a perfect communica- 

 tion from the former to the latter. 



As soon as the Revolutionary war was concluded, Washington 

 saw, in the improvement of the internal communications of this 



