HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



777 



Without wishing to present the foregoing as in any degree 

 a final conclusion, it is the broad view to take of the question. 



Report of the Board of Engineers on Deep Waterways. Under 

 the provisions of the Sundry Civil Act, passed June 4, 1897, the 

 President appointed Major Chas. W. Raymond of the Corps of 

 Army Engineers, Alfred Noble and George Y. Wisner to make 

 surveys and examinations of de'ep waterways between the Great 

 Lakes and the Atlantic tidewaters, as recommended by the 

 Report of the Deep Waterways Commission. The sundry civil 

 act of July 1, 1898, provided that this board should submit in 

 their report the probable and relative cost of canals 21 and 30 

 feet in depth, with a statement of the relative advantages. 



This board examined the project for. a ship canal in all its 

 phases, making the most elaborate report thus far made on an 

 engineering project anywhere; $485,000 was spent and the 

 report includes over 1000 pages, illustrated by maps and dia- 

 grams, showing every possible phase of the subject. Its length 

 precludes anything like a complete review of it here, and the 

 writer will confine himself to such references as are necessary 

 to understand its relation to water supply in the State of New 

 York. 



Attention may be again called to the fact that the Board 

 of Engineers was limited in its investigations to the recom- 

 mendations made by the Deep Waterways Commission. These 

 recommendations included the following: 



1) That complete surveys and examinations be made and all 

 needful data to mature projects be procured for — 



a) Controlling the level of Lake Erie and projecting the 

 Niagara ship-canal. 



b) Developing the Oswego-Oneida-Mohawk route. 



c) Developing the St Lawrence Champlain route. 



d) Improving the tidal Hudson river. 



e) Improving intermediate channels of the lakes. 



2) That the collecting and reducing of existing information, 

 supplemented by reconnaissance and special investigations, be 

 continued until the general questions have been fully covered. 



3) That a systematic measurement of the outflow of the sev- 

 eral lakes and a final determination of their levels shall be 

 undertaken. 



