7l>4 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Gen. Phillip Schuyler was the first* president of the Western 

 Inland Lock Navigation Company. 1 



In March, 1795, an act was passed directing the State Treasurer 

 to subscribe :!()() shares to these companies, of $50 each. State 

 aid was again granted by an act passed in April, 1796, by which 

 the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was loaned 

 $37,500, and a mortgage taken by the State on the company's 

 property at Little Falls. In that year a route was opened from 

 Schenectady to Seneca Falls for boats carrying 1G tons. The 

 locks at Little Falls were first built of wood, then of brick, and 

 finally of stone. The tariff levied for a barrel of flour carried 

 100 miles was 52 cents, and for a ton of goods, $5.75. 



In the report of the directors of the Western Inland Lock 

 Navigation Company to the Legislature of 1796 many interesting 

 particulars are given in regard to this navigation. The follow- 

 ing from that report about the canal around Little Falls is of 

 interest: 



The canal is drawn through the northern shore of the Mohawk 

 river, about fifty-six miles beyond Schenectady. Its track is 

 nearly parallel to the direction of the waters of the fall, and at 

 a mean about forty yards therefrom. Its supply of water is from 

 the river, and the canal commences above the falls, in a neat, 

 we 11 -covered basin of considerable depth of water, and reenters 

 the river in a spacious bay at the foot of the falls; its length is 

 47r>2 feet, in which distance the aggregate fall is 44 feet 7 inches. 

 Five locks, having each nearly 9 feet lift, are placed towards the 

 lower end of the canal, and the pits, in which they are placed, 

 have been excavated out of solid rock, of the hardest kind; the 

 chamber of each lock is an area of 74 feet by 12 feet in the cleave, 

 and boats drawing three feet and a half of water may enter at 

 all times ; the depth of water in all the extent of the canal beyond 

 the locks is various, but not less than 3 feet in any place; near 

 the upper end of the canal a guard lock is placed without lift, to 

 prevent a redundancy of water; when the water in the river rises 

 beyond the lowest state, sluices are constructed, to discharge the 

 surplus water entering the canal, from the two small rivulets 

 which intersect its course; about 2550 feet of the canal is cut 

 through solid rock, and where tlx' level struck above the natural 

 surface of the earth, or rather rock, strong and well constructed 

 walls are erected, supported by heavy emibankments of earth, to 



1 Iii the original paper " Water Kcsoureos of 1lio State of New York " it is 

 erroneously stated that George Washington was the first president of the 

 Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. 



