lotteries were prohibited by Sec. 11 of Article 7 of the Constitution of 1821.

In a report presented to the Legislature under date of January 31, 1818, the Canal Commissioners gave an account of their transactions after the enactment of the canal law of 1817.

The first work decided upon was the construction of that portion of the canal from Rome to Utica, as that summit "would command, at all times, an inexhaustible supply of water, embracing the Oriskany creek, the Mohawk river, Wood creek, and the more numerous and copious streams west of Wood creek, which cross the line of the canal, and discharge themselves into Oneida lake.

The first contract was dated June 27, 1817, and the work was commenced at Rome, the site of Ft. Stanwix, which had played an important part in the commercial history of the territory, on the 4th day of July, 1817. The people of the village arranged to celebrate Independence Day and the commencement of the excavation for the Erie Canal with proper ceremonies. They assembled at sunrise and were addressed by Judge Joshua Hathaway, president of the village, who introduced Col. Samuel Young, one of the canal commissioners, who spoke as follows:

"Fellow-citizens: We have assembled to commence the excavation of the Erie canal. The work when accomplished will connect our western inland seas with the Atlantic ocean. It will diffuse the benefits of internal navigation over a surface of vast extent, blessed with a salubrious climate and luxuriant soil, embracing a tract of country capable of sustaining more human beings than were ever accommodated by any work of the kind.

"By this great highway, unborn millions will easily transport their surplus productions to the shores of the Atlantic, procure their supplies, and hold a useful and profitable intercourse with all the maritime nations of the earth.

"The expense and labor of this great undertaking, bear no proportion to its utility. Nature has kindly afforded every facility; we have all the moral and physical means within our reach and control. Let us then proceed to the work, animated by the prospect of its speedy accomplishment, and cheered with the anticipated benedictions of a grateful posterity."

1. Ib. 367.

At the conclusion of the speech Judge John Richardson removed the first spadeful of earth and was followed by the assembled citizens who were zealous to participate in the labors and ceremonies of this eventful occasion. One writer says:

"Thus accompanied by the acclamations of the citizens, and the discharge of a cannon, was struck the first stroke towards the construction of a work, which in its completion has united Erie with the Hudson; the West with the Atlantic; which has scattered plenty along its borders; carried refinement and civilization to the regions of the wilderness; and which will ever remain a proud and useful monument of the enlightened views of its projectors, and of the wisdom and magnanimity of the State of New York.”

The Commissioners considered it "more just and equitable" to let small contracts, "in order that men in moderate pecuniary circumstances might be enabled to engage in the work" than by a diminution of the number of the contracts to put "it in the power of a few wealthy individuals to monopolize the whole." Accordingly there were approximately 50 separate contracts let for 58 miles of work on the summit level within the first year. Money was advanced on security to contractors before any work was done to enable them to purchase provisions and supplies for their men. Surveys of the entire route were made during the dry season of 1816 and the work commenced in the wet season of 1817, which made the work more expensive to the contractors, but for the first year it was done within the estimates, notwithstanding "the surface of the earth was beaten and drenched by heavy and frequent rains and from the melting of snow till nearly the first of June.""

Unforeseen difficulties were encountered in constructing the prism and maintaining the embankments in some parts of the route, which ran through swamps and marshy districts lower than the established level of sections of the canal, such as those through the Cayuga marshes between the Mohawk and Seneca rivers, frequently flooded by intercepting water courses, rendering such sections at

times impassible. In other places hardpan, breccia, indurated clay, and stone or quicksand were encountered. In still other places rank marsh grasses, shrubbery, roots and stumps of trees obstructed the progress of work, and the contractors devised and constructed some of the apparatus and machinery which they used in grubbing, cleaning and excavating; for steam drills and shovels, steam and hydraulic dredges, steam and electric derricks, excavators, travelling derricks, cableways, transporting scows, beltconveyor plants and construction trains now in use in barge canal construction were then unknown. The axe, spade, wheel-barrow, road-scraper, a heavy coulter-pointed plough, devised for the occasion and drawn by two yoke of oxen, which would cut roots two inches in diameter, were among the common implements in general use in the building of the original Erie, Champlain and Oswego canals.

To prevent deception and fraud in the performance of the work of excavation and construction of the embankments, the engineers were instructed to employ vigilant assistants to travel frequently over the line of the canal, inspect and report on every job and to insist on a rigid compliance with the contracts, which required the contractors to complete their contracts and have them inspected and accepted before they were entitled to payment. Monthly advance payments were made when the work was carried on in a faithful manner, but, if any deception were discovered, payments were suspended. Most of the contractors were men of high standing and financial responsibility and performed their work in an acceptible manner. A few failed to complete their contracts and their names are given in a report of the Canal Commissioners to the Legislature in the month of March, 1818, together with the reasons for such failure.

Work progressed, however, on the Erie and on the Champlain canals as expeditiously as could be expected. The plans were modified in relation to the Champlain canal in 1817 so as to make the dimensions conform to those of the Erie and thereby admit of the passage of boats from the Erie through the Champlain canal and avoid the necessity

of transferring cargoes at Waterford. The dimensions of both the Erie and Champlain canal prisms were 40 feet wide at the surface of the water, 28 feet wide at the bottom of the prisms, which were to be 4 feet deep, with locks 90 feet long by 15 feet wide and with towing paths from 10 to 15 feet in width.

The commissioners decided that the increased dimensions of the Champlain canal were justified for the reason, among others, they say, that those parts of this State and of Vermont, which lie contiguous to Lake Champlain, abound in material for "masts, spars, ship-timber and lumber of all descriptions," and that all such bulky articles "may be transported through such locks in much larger quantities and of course with much more expedition than through those of small dimensions." 1

The Canal Commissioners reported to the Legislature that about nine tenths of the resident landholders between Utica and the Seneca river and fifty-six persons west of the Seneca river had made voluntary cessions of land to the State for canal purposes; and in 1819, the Holland Land Company granted 100,632 acres in the county of Cattaraugus to the State for that purpose, upon condition that

"if the contemplated inland navigation between Lake Erie and Hudson's river should not be effectually completed so as to afford a good water communication between the said lake and river, for boats of at least five tons burthen, by the 19th of August, 1842,"

then all such lands as were unsold should revert to the Holland Land Company and the unpaid purchase moneys of such lands as were sold should be accounted for and paid to the said grantors and the People of the State by the terms of the act of April 13, 1819, stipulated to pay to such grantors the fair and actual value of such lands, for which the State had received payment. All such lands as remained unsold in 1842 were to revert to the Holland Land Company.2

A half or more of the lands for the Champlain canal between Fort Edward and Whitehall was voluntarily ceded

I. Ib. 378.

2. Ib. 435-437

by individuals to the State. Although the building of locks was both difficult and costly, their construction was well understood by the engineers, Charles C. Brodhead, Benjamin Wright, James Geddes, David Thomas and Canvass White, who visited Europe to study lock construction and returned to supervise the construction of locks on the Erie canal. It is said that he was the first to discover waterproof lime or cement which was used in hydraulic work on the canals.

X. PROBLEMS AND CONTROVERSIES.

The Commissioners were confronted with many intricate and perplexing problems. They were required to devise and supervise the building of such structures as the several aqueducts between Schenectady and Little Falls and those over Oriskany creek and the Genesee river, and several others. Their engineers may have been familiar with the construction of the Roman aqueducts of the Campania and Segovia and of the Chirk and Pont Cysylltan aqueducts described by Phillips as "among the boldest efforts of human invention in modern times." Still it required skill and courage at that time to build structures adequate to carry the prism of the original Erie canal through marshes and across rivers. The aqueduct over the Genesee river was 802 feet long, sustained by ten arches of 50 feet span each except one of 30 feet span and cost $87,127.61.1 Quicksands were encountered in the Cayuga marshes, and these were the occasion of much trouble to constructors, when the nine million dollar improvement was under way in 1897. New and unforeseen

I. 2 N. Y. Canal Laws, 547. The remaining principal aqueducts were those over the Mohawk, one four miles northeast of Schenectady 748 feet long, one 12 miles below Schenectady 1188 feet long "resting on twenty-six piers of well cut stone laid in water lime cement," one in Herkimer county 204 feet long over the Oriskany creek, one at Little Falls 184 feet long, said to be "one of the finest specimens of masonry on the whole line of the canal," "whose three beautiful arches carried the canal from 40 to 50 feet above the waters of the Mohawk." ("Guide to the Middle and Northern States," p. 203. The height was about 30 feet.) One over the Skaneateles outlet 100 feet long, one over the Oak Orchard creek 60 feet long, one over the Owasco outlet 120 feet long, one over Mud creek; and many other smaller aqueducts.