60 



Doc. No. 75. 



The branch called Oswego canal, 38 miles - - |56o,437 35 



The branch called Cayuga and Seneca canal, 20 miles - 256,804 74 



The branch called Chemung canal, 36 miles - - 342,133 95 



The branch called Crooked canal, 8 miles - - 136,331 99 



Total amount of miles, 528; cost - - - 11,488,035 99 



The principal branch of this canal (363 miles long) cost nine million 

 twenty-seven thousand four hundred and fifty-six dollars and five cents; 

 and its dimensions are: forty feet width on its water surface, twenty-eight 

 feet at the bottom, and four feet depth of water; with an elevation of six 

 hundred feet, overcome by means of eighty-four locks. 



Speaking of the Nicaragua canal, Mr. Radclilf says: "By the route 

 through Lake Nicaragua, a ship canal would require an excavation of 

 proper depth and breadth (about twenty-two feet deep, forty feet wide at 

 bottom, and one hundred feet wide at top) for a distance of from sixty to 

 seventy miles between the Atlantic and the lake, with locks to ascend 

 about one hundred and forty feet to the level of the lake; and another 

 similar excavation of about twenty or twenty five miles long between the 

 lake and the Pacific, with locks to descend about the same number of 

 feet." According to this description, each excavation would be from 

 eighty-five to ninety-five miles in length. I have made inquiries of Mr. 



gans, formerly secretary of the Netherlands legation, who in 1830 

 ascended and descended the river twice, and he has assured me that there 

 are about forty navigable miles of the river course, and that for the re- 

 mainder it would be necessary to build a lateral canal in order to avoid a 

 few rapids. If this information be correct, the distance to be excavated 

 does not exceed fifty miles. It is calculated that every ten feet of eleva- 

 tion will require one lock; so that fourteen locks will have to be construct- 

 ed for each excavation, making twenty- eight in all. In comparing the 

 length of the Erie canal with that contemplated in Nicaragua, it will be 

 seen that the distance requiring excavation in the latter instance is about 

 one-seventh of the former. That although this excavation requires to be 

 five times as deep as the other, and the dimensions both on the surface 

 and at the bottom three times wider, yet, as the length is only to be one- 

 seventh part of the other, and the number of locks required only one- 

 third, the cost of these works must be proportionably less than that of 

 the Erie canal. 



The Holland canal is fifty miles and a half long, twenty feet nine inches 

 deep, thirty-six feet wide at bottom, one hundred and twenty-four feet 

 wide at top, with two tide locks at the extremities, and two sluices with 

 flood-gates in the intermediate space, being on a level with the sea, and 

 supplied with water from thence at high tides, and occasionally by the aid 

 of a powerful steam-engine. It cost about five millions of dollars. 



The Caledonian canal, in Scotland, is sixty- nine miles and a quarter 

 long from sea to sea, including the intermediate lakes forming a part of 

 the line; but it has only twenty-three miles of excavation, with an expen- 

 sive deepening of those lakes. It is twenty feet deep, forty feet wide at 

 bottom, and eighty or ninety feet wide at top, having twenty-three locks 

 to overcome an elevation of ninety four feet. It cost about four and a 

 half millions of dollars. 



The last mentioned canal^ as regards length, dimensions and eleva- 



