THE ST. LAWRENCE. 61 
•*i . . • • f. 
number of people. Independent of these con¬ 
siderations., the St. Lawrence will, on another 
account, be found a more commodious channel 
than any other for the carrying on of trade 
between the ocean and the lakes. Constantly 
supplied from that immense reservoir of water. 
Lake Ontario, it is never so low, even in the 
driest season, as not to be sufficiently deep to 
float laden bateaux. The small streams, on tho 
contrary, which connect Hudson's River, the 
Patowmac, and the Mississippi, with the lakes, 
are frequently so dried up in summertime, that 
it is scarcely possible to pass along them in 
i 
canoes. For upwards of four months in the 
summer of 1796, the Mohawk River was so 
low, that it was totally impracticable to trans¬ 
port merchandize along it during the greater 
part of its course, and the traders in the back 
country, after waiting for a length of time for 
the goods they wanted, were under the ne¬ 
cessity at last of having them forwarded by land 
carriage. The navigation of this river, it is 
said, becomes worse every year, and unless se¬ 
veral long canals are cut, there will be an end 
to the water communication between New 
York and Lake Ontario by that route. The 
Alleghany River and French Creek, which 
connect the Patowmac with Lake Erie, are 
equally affected by droughts; indeed it is only 
during floods, occasioned by the melting of the 
