i^ 32 ] 60 
advantages are opposed the difficulties and obstacles which the grwmU 
opposes to the constiuction of a canal in the Valley oftlie Susquehan- 
jiah, fi'om Middletown to Havre-de-Grare: surveys, accurate gauging 
of the waters, and regular estimates, ci^n only afford elements ncces-. 
sary to decide this question. 
In any case, ovej'looking the consideration pf expense, in an ob- 
ject so important as that of uniting the waters of the West with the 
Atlantic, we see that nature, on the loute we have juyt described, has 
probably given the means or possibility of joining the Ohio to the 
Ocean. Reservoirs judiciously formed in tfie heads of the Conemaugb 
and Juniatta, wight secure a sufficient supply of water to the summit 
level, and a section of the canal, descending the Valley of the Susquc- 
hannah, from Middletown to Havre-de-Giace, might be substituted 
to that which runs from Middletown to the Schuyikiil, if the latter 
•was found more expensive, insufficiently supplied with water, and 
longer. The comparison of these two routes, and the examination o^ 
the summit level, at the heads of the Coneniaugh, are the parts of this 
Avork which require to be studied with the moyt scrupulous exactness, 
before coming to any conclusion. 
DELAWARE AND RARITAN CANAL. 
This interesting route was examined by the Board, in co-operatioa 
with Messrs. the Hon. G. Holcombe, L. Z. C. Elmer, and Peter 
Kean, New Jersey Canal Commissioners. A level was run on the 
ground, in 1816, by Mr. John Randal, jun., under the direction of 
Messrs. John Rutherford, John W. Simpson, and G. Holcombe, then 
Canal Commissioners of New Jersey. This is the line which we 
reconnoitred. 
Commencing above Lamberton, it directs itself, deviating little from 
straight line, to the Raritan, between New Brunswick and Wash- 
ington. Its length is about 29 miles. Supposing the canal 8 feet 
deep, and its bottom 60 -j'Jg- feet above the medium of high and low 
water in the Raritan, and 58 j*-^^ feet above tli£ medium of high and 
low water in the Delaware, its line of water would not deviate nuich 
from the actual surface of the soil in the greatest part of its length. 
In some spots, however, embankments would be necessary to raise 
it; in others, cutting through the undulations of the ground; but the 
former would seldom exceed from 1 to 12 feet in length; the others 
from 5 to 20 in depth, and they will only be required for short dis- 
tances. Many of them may be avoided in finally locating the route 
of the canal. 
This work will tims run on one level, offering, at each extremity, 
a series of locks to descend, on one side, into the Raritan, and, on the 
otlier, into the Delaware. But, before examining its terminations, 
we should trace the intermediate route between those extreme poiuts. 
Crossing, successively,thc Assunpick and Millstone, it descends the 
