HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



807 



The Seneca Oneida route. The southern and northern routes 

 from Newark to the west line of Syracuse having turned out so 

 unsatisfactory, the writer then proposed to the Canal Committee 

 to entirely modify their plan. Instead of building the continu- 

 ously descending canal, it was suggested that a canal dropping 

 down to the level of the Seneca river be constructed, thence 

 through that river to Three Rivers Point, thence through the 

 Oneida river to and through Oneida lake, with an artificial chan- 

 nel from Oneida lake, finally joining the Home level of the Erie 

 canal at a point about halfway between Stacey Basin, and New 

 London, a few miles west of Rome. 



One main object of the proposed high level continuously de- 

 scending canal is to deliver Lake Erie water to the Rome level and 

 thence into the Mohawk river, thereby obviating difficulties of 



Fig. 71 Earth section of Erie canal east of Rochester. 



water supplies from reservoirs along the line of the canal. Another 

 point to be gained by the high-level route was to eliminate lock- 

 ages, thereby saving time. If, however, as much time can be 

 gained by a broad, deep river and lake navigation as by eliminat- 

 ing lockages, then lockage objection is not very important. 

 Taking everything into account, the writer reported to the Canal 

 Committee that under the existing conditions a route by Seneca- 

 Oneida rivers would, due to breadth and depth of channel, permit 

 of navigation in less time than by a proposed high-level canal. 

 The argument is therefore in favor of the Seneca-Oneida route, 

 specially since it can be built at much less cost. 



It seems to the writer an extraordinary fact that the possibil- 

 ities of the Seneca-Oneida route, extending as it does for over 

 ninety miles through the center of the State, have not long since 

 been thoroughly exploited. Considering the relatively small cost 

 of making effective navigation on this line, and looking at the 

 question from the point of view of today, one would suppose 



