HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



813 



will increase it to about 182,000,000. This estimate provides for 

 a canal 12 feet deep via the Mohawk and Seneca rivers, as well 

 as by the interior route, through Syracuse, Clyde, Lyons, Newark, 

 Palmyra, Rochester and Lockport to Buffalo. 



During the legislative session of 1903, some question having 

 arisen as to the adequacy of the estimates made, they were 

 again gone over and finally revised. In a communication to the 

 Legislature under date of March 2, 1903, the State Engineer says: 



I have no hesitation, therefore, in asserting that the estimates 

 of cost given in the barge canal report were as complete and 

 accurate as any estimates ever prepared within the time allotted 

 for a work of such magnitude, and that they were reliable esti- 

 mates of the cost at that time for the improvement covered by the 

 report, with the one possible exception of the allowance for un- 

 foreseen contingencies and expenses. 



It is an undisputed fact that during the past few years the 

 prosperity of our country has resulted in an increase in the con- 

 struction of public works of all descriptions, and in the develop- 

 ment of native resour<es by private capital, creating such a de- 

 mand for labor and materials that both have advanced in price 

 within the past two years; furthermore, the fact of the State 

 enlisting in an enterprise of this magnitude would have a tendency 

 to increase the price of labor and materials entering into its 

 construction. 



The State Engineer then answers several questions in detail, 

 finally ending with the conclusion that in 1903 the barge canal 

 would cost roundly f 101,000,000. He states that water supply 

 is based on a business of 10,000,000 tons of freight per canal 

 season, and that if the business of the enlarged canals should 

 increase to double this quantity, or to 20,000,000 tons per canal 

 season, there should be added to the estimate f 1,330,000. 



The original water supply included a feeder from Fish creek 

 to near Fort Bull, together with the construction of the Salmon 

 river reservoir, already described. The water from this reser- 

 voir may be turned into Mad river, a tributary of Fish creek, 

 without serious expense. On this plan the total cost of the water 

 supply for a traffic of 10,000,000 tons per year would not exceed 

 $3,000,000. Aside from the supply to the present Erie canal 

 from Butternut, Limestone, Chittenango, Cowaselon creeks, etc. 

 the additional supply was to be obtained from a single large 



