[32] 108 
with a fair wind, met by an adverse gale before they reach llicir 
port, and after being driven around Nantiiclvct Shoals regain the 
sound to make a new effort. But the same wind that would car- 
ry a vessel into the Vineyard, would cany her up Buzzard's Bay 
and through the canal to Boston Light, and all the other eastern 
harbors would be under the lee bow, with a northwest wind running 
from the canal. 
The importance of this can^^l communication is illustrated by re- 
ference to the number of vessels which pass Cape Cod in a year. 
II was on a former occasion ascertaine<l that, in the year 1791. six 
hundred passed. It appears now, in the memorial of the delegates 
of Massachusetts referred to, that, in 1823.thci-e were 5000: and it is 
stated that 2,500, averaging 100 tons, would pass the canal in a year, 
immediately after this passage shouhl be opened. Indeed, the saving 
of insurance would be such as to induce freighters to stipulate with 
masters of vessels that they should use the canal, or the preference 
given to those wlio did so would i-ender it necessary that all should, 
for the sa'/ing in distance would be 200 miles between New York 
and Boston, and still more in time, as one is a circuitous and the 
other a direct passage. Indeed, the masters of vessels would have 
other interests in it, the saving in pilotage, in wages, in wear and tear 
of their vessels. Mercantile men of the first intelligence calculate 
tl'.at 50,000 dollars would be annually saved in wages only. The 
saving in premiums of insurance would be a vcr)^ great sum, as few 
coasteis load between Boston and New York with less value than 
10,000 dollars, and often with cargoes of 100,000 dollars. 2,500 
vessels of the average value of 20,000 dollars would be fifty millions 
of dollars, upon which a saving of one half per cent, would be 250. OOp 
dollars. It is evident, therefore, that owners could well afford to 
pay a toll fortius facility and safety of passage. 
It is scarcely necessary to remark, after the exposition of the 
commercial advantages of the passage described in the memorial, 
that the increasing intercourse between the northern and southern 
and western states, as their respective resources of wealth are de- 
veloped, has given a consequence to this more immediate communi- 
cation that it never before had attained; but which is equally appreci- 
ated by Connecticut, New York, the middle and southern states, 
as by Massachusetts. 
It remains, therefore, to designate the investigations, essential to 
he made, to form an estimate of the expense of this improvement. 
1. The external or visible circumstances being known already, to 
ascertain tlie nature of tlie ground to the depth of the proposed 
excavation. 
2. The nature and extent of the bar at the entrance of Back River. 
3. The nature of the ground or bottom of Monument River, where- 
by, possibly, much excavation may be saved, compared with the 
route to Back River. 
I. The proprietary of the soil; the mill-sites, and the pond^ and all 
