69 [ 32 ] 
2(1. A continued line of interior navigation from Chesapeake Bay 
to Barnstable Bay, Mass. may be opened or ratiier completed at a 
reasonable expense for coasting vessels. One branch of it, the Dela- 
ware and Chesapeake Canal, is now constructing. The Delaware 
an<l Karitan Canal may, at a moderate expense, be huilt on the same 
dimensions, (for coasting vessels.) The Buzzard's Bay and Barn- 
stable Canal, at no great expense, may receive a still greater depth 
of water than the former. 
3d, A canal joining Narragansett Bay and Boston Bay, would ■ 
make a part of this line, and procure great advantages to the interior 
trade and natiot)al defence of the Union, if subsequent surveys demon- 
strate Us pi'acticability. But the canal across the isthmus of Cape 
Cod. from Uyannis Harbor to Barnstable Bay, from the great expense 
winch its construction would require to procure a sufficiency of water 
to feed it, is impracticable,* and its vicinit;y to the proposed canal be- 
tween Barnstable Bay and Buzzard's Bay, renders it an object of 
less imjjortance. 
4th. Lastly, it is probable that a communication may be opened 
between the Ocean and Ohio, through the Conemaugh and Juniatta. 
We should not conclude this report without paying to the gentle- 
men who have assisted the Board during their labors, the just tribute 
which we owe to their zeal and talents. Captain Poussin, of the 
United States' topographical engineers, has continued those efficient 
and scientific services which rendered him so useful as an assistant in 
the planning of our system of fortifications for the defence of our fron- 
tiers. In this circumstance he has shown himself equally fitted for 
military and civil engineering. 
Lieuts. Courtnay and Dutton, of the military engineer corps, and 
distinguished pu|)ils of our Military Academy, have shown, by their 
acquirements, how highly beneficial that institution will become to 
diffuse through our country that theory of mathematics so useful in 
civil engineering. 
Mr. \Vm. Howard, United States' assistant civil engineer, has re- 
connoitered, along with the Board, the line of the canal from the Po- 
tomac to Lake Erie. His advice and services were highly important, 
and principally in the investigation relative to the summit level of the 
Ohio and Chesapeake Canal: conversant with every branch of science, 
he was of great help in our operations. 
Major Douglass, Professor of Engineering at the Military Acft'- 
demy, West Point, attended the operations of the Board, whilst they 
were reconnoitring the route of the Ohio and Erie Canal. 
S. BERNARD, Brig. Gen. 
JOS. G. TOTTEN, Maj. Eng. 
Brevet Lt. CoL 
Washington City, February 2, 1825. 
