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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Deep Waterways Commission of 1895. In February, 

 1895, Congress by a joint resolution authorized a preliminary 

 inquiry concerning* deep waterways between the Great Lakes 

 and the ocean, and provided that the President should appoint 

 three commissioners to make such inquiry. The President, 

 under this resolution, appointed Prof. James B. Angell, of Ann 

 Arbor, Michigan; John E. Russell, of Leicester, Massachusetts, 

 and Lyman E. Cooley, of Chicago, Illinois. The report of the 

 commission, published in 1897, includes a large amount of valu- 

 able information in regard to a deep waterway from the upper 

 Great Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard. In regard to the State 

 of New York, it has been pointed out by Mr Cooley that nature 

 has indicated two feasible routes for such a canal. The first 

 of these is the Oswego-Mohawk-Hudson route, extending from 

 Oswego through the valley of the Oswego and Oneida rivers, and 

 thence across the divide to the Mohawk, thence through the 

 Mohawk valley to a point on the Hudson in the vicinity of Troy, 

 and so on through the Hudson river to tidewater at New York. 

 One objection to this route is the lockage over the summit be- 

 tween Lake Ontario and the Mohawk valley. Another objection 

 is the absorption of a large quantity of water in central New 

 York for the supply of the summit level of the canal, and which 

 probably can be more effectively used in manufacturing; that 

 is to say, the State of New York, by developing its manufactur- 

 ing resources to their fullest extent, can realize more return 

 from manufacturing than from the use of its inland waters 

 for purposes of internal navigation of any kind what 

 ever. The Oswego-Mohawk-Hudson route would utilize the 

 great natural highway which has been an easy passage to com 

 merce from the early days of settlement on the Atlantic coast. 



The second natural route through the State of New York 

 is by way of St Lawrence river to the head of Coteau rapids, 

 where the low-water level of Lake St Francis is 153.5 feet above 

 tide, or 68.5 feet above the low-water level of Lake Champlain. 

 On this plan a canal would be constructed from Coteau Land- 

 ing to the head of Lake Champlain, near Rouses Point, this 

 section requiring cutting through a summit about 50 feet in 

 night. Lake Champlain would then be utilized to Whitehall, 

 from which point a canal would be cut through the valley lead- 



