ANNUAL KEPORT—COMMERCE. 
91 
“ 4. The total cost of repairs and management up to 1865, 
inclusive. 
“ 5. A net profit amounting to $15,622,836. 
“’In all, the extraordinary sum of $83,629,248. 
“ The improvement of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, of 
which it is proposed that the government shall build the 
western end, and the Green Bay and Mississippi Canal Com¬ 
pany the eastern end, as compared with the Erie canal, is as 
follows: 
“ The length of the enlarged Erie canal is 350 miles. 
“ The length of the improvement. Green Bay to the Missis¬ 
sippi, is 278 miles. 
“ The summit level of the Erie canal is, at Buffalo, 654 feet 
above the Hudson river at Troy. 
“ The summit level of the improvement is, at the portage, 
about 200 feet above lake Michigan at Green Ba}^, and 169 
feet above the Mississippi at the mouth of the Wisconsin. 
“ The waters received into the Erie canal at Buffalo, are in 
great part wasted at Lockport. From that point eastward the 
canal is supplied by artificial feeders. For all practical pur¬ 
poses the summit level of the canal is the long level from 
Syracuse to Utica (55 miles), a level fed by ten artificial feed¬ 
ers, built at great cost, of which the largest and most expen¬ 
sive is the Black Eiver canal. The supply of water is still 
insufficient, and it is proposed to build other feeders for this 
level. 
“ The full volume of the Wisconsin river, three-fifths as 
large as the Mississippi at St. Paul, is at the summit level of 
the improvement. 
“ The bottom of the Erie canal, throughout the long level, 
is an artificial bottom, from ten to thirty feet above the level 
of the country through which it passes. It is liable to break 
away and difficult to repair,' endangering life and property. 
At Syracuse, the New York Central railway passes under the 
canal. At Utica, the bottom is on a level with the second 
story windows of many of the houses on the river side of the 
town. The city sewers, the street and highway drains, and 
