HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



771 



designed for exportation, may be transported at minimum cost, 

 and that return freight of the greatest possible magnitude may 

 be secured and the canal benefit alike the people of the west and 

 of the east. 



5) Any ship canal built should not only subserve the interests 

 of foreig r n-bound commerce, but as well the domestic commerce 

 between the centers of population in the east and the producing 

 regions of the Avest. 



6) The domestic commerce is of more importance to consider 

 than the commerce destined to or from foreign countries. 



7) A ship canal by the St Lawrence route to Montreal, or by 

 the St Lawrence-Champlain route to New York, does not fulfill 

 these conditions, and should not be considered by the United 

 States. 



8) The route considered best for a ship canal is by the Niagara 

 river, Lake Ontario, Oswego, Oneida lake and the Mohawk and 

 Hudson rivers. 



9) For the highest economy in transportation special types 

 of vessels are needed for use on the ocean, on the lakes and on 

 the canals, and neither can replace the other in its proper waters 

 without suffering loss of efficiency. Ocean vessels could not, as a 

 general rule, engage in the business of passing through a ship 

 canal and the lakes to upper lake ports, and lake vessels are not 

 fitted for use upon the ocean, and if they made use of a canal 

 they would have to transfer their cargoes at the seaboard. For 

 economical transportation through a canal from the Great Lakes 

 to the sea. special vessels, differing from and far less costly than 

 ocean or lake vessels, are required. 



10) Important and serviceable canals already exist between 

 the Great Lakes and the Hudson, the Erie canal connecting Lake 

 Erie with the Hudson, and the Oswego-Erie canal connecting 

 Lake Ontario with the Hudson. By these canals low rates of 

 freight are attained. 



11) These canals are being improved by the State of New York 

 to the extent that when completed the capacity of the boats 

 navigating them will be increased about 70 per cent, the time of 

 transit will be materially reduced, and it will be possible and 

 practicable to move freight between Lake Erie and New Y^ork 

 for about 60 per cent of the present cost. 



12) Lender existing conditions and methods these canals re- 

 quire, and will when improved require, the transference of freight 

 from lake vessels to canal boats, and vice versa, at lower lake 

 ports. 



13) This transference is an important and expensive item in 

 the cost of through freight, and its avoidance or material reduc- 

 tion is very desirable. 



