from time to time along the Erie, Champlain, Oswego and lateral canals. In volume I of the "History of New York Canals" already cited, may be found a list of a large number of such acts; it would extend the bounds of this paper too far to give a resumé of them. That remains for the historian of the canal system of the State, when its definitive history shall be written. A study of these acts shows the trend of public sentiment in this State for more than a century, setting strongly in favor of the construction and operation of a system of waterways that touched the remotest parts of the State and brought many outlying counties into water communication with the metropolis. We have seen that many of these acts were the result of public sentiment expressed in memorials, petitions, public meetings and resolutions of commercial assemblages called to consider the questions involved as they arose from time to time.

The library of the Buffalo Historical Society, the State Library, the large libraries of New York City, and other libraries of the State, as well as several commercial libraries such as those of the Board of Trade and Transportation of New York, the New York Produce Exchange and the Chamber of Commerce of Buffalo, and many private libraries, altogether contain a vast amount of manuscripts and pamphlets bearing on this important branch of the history of the State. Nearly every public citizen from the Livingston family down to the present has been in some way associated with canal development in this State. Inland navigation was a favorite subject of conversation among the early settlers and historic families of this State, who were familiar with conditions existing in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe where waterways were in successful operation. Among these were such men as Peter Van Brugh Livingston, President of the Provincial Congress in 1775 and Philip Livingston, member of the Continental Congress in 1774. He had been made acquainted with inland navigation in the Netherlands through the reports of one of the members of the family who had visited them. The papers, letters and documents of the period

abound in references to the possibilities of waterways between the Great Lakes on the West and the Hudson river on the East, and the advantages to accrue to the people of the State from their construction and operation. Information in regard to canal construction in Europe was eagerly sought after and tours by prominent citizens of the Province and State of New York were made, with reference to ascertaining definite knowledge as to the methods of construction, size of prisms, locks and manner of construction of aqueducts, embankments and other parts involving engineering skill. Attention has already been called to some of these matters. As the work progressed, interest inIcreased in the matter of canal construction. Tours were made on packet-boats over the eastern and western parts of the State, and the passengers were greatly interested in watching the operation and studying the construction of locks and aqueducts. The small packets with their loads of passengers, glided along over the waters of the canal without interruption, except at the locks, through fertile country which was being rapidly settled.

In 1822 a tourist in describing a part of his journey from New York to Niagara Falls and return says:

"The next morning we took a boat at Utica for Montezuma, and at 10 o'clock a. m. the next day we reached the place of destination 96 miles. We immediately embarked on board of a small boat-entered the Seneca river by a lock-passed into one of its inlets, called the Clyde river, formed from the confluence of the Canandaigua outlet and Mud creek at Lyons, and navigated it until we arrived at Clyde-distant 15 miles by this route from Montezuma, and 12 miles by the canal when completed. . . . At Clyde we entered the canal by a temporary wooden lock, and took passage in a canal boat. At Lyons, nine miles, we changed to the Myron Holley, a boat of 40 tons, drawing eight inches of water, and replete with elegant accommodations. We lodged that night at Palmyra, and the next morning we arrived at Heartwell's basin in Pittsford (eight miles from Rochester), where the present navigation of the canal terminates."1

The effect of the completion of the canal upon transportation is evidenced by the fact that the transportation of

1. Letter signed "W. G.," dated Saratoga Springs, 20th June, 1822, printed in pamphlet form entitled "Great Western Canal."

merchandise from Philadelphia to Pittsburg fell from $120 to $40 a ton in 1822. The reduction of the cost of transportation in this State has already been stated.

The interest taken in the outlying counties of the State in the construction and extension of its lateral canals is well illustrated in a resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Tioga adopted on November 26, 1859, which was formulated by the Hon. T. H. Todd, Silas Fordham, and P. J. Joslin. It had a wide circulation in Tioga and adjoining counties. After a recital of the surveys for the proposed extension of the Chenango canal to the North Branch canal at the State line, "through a country already rich in the products of the forest, of agriculture and of other branches of industry and only wanting in the facilities of transportation," the resolution reads as follows:

"The proposed addition to the Chenango canal is but a short link of less than forty miles, which is to connect the great canal systems of two great states thus carrying out the original designs of those who projected the Chenango canal, and giving it at length an opportunity to realize their predictions of its utility and income.

"It has become almost an axiom among the friends and projectors of works of internal improvements, that it is the long lines of canals or railroads, works giving opportunity for interchange of commodities between large extents of country, which pay. Now construct this small link, and we have an unbroken canal navigation from the Hudson river at Albany and Troy, and Lakes Champlain and Ontario, on the north, to Chesapeake and Delaware bays on the south. We open a route for traffic not merely between the interior portions of the two great states of New York and Pennsylvania, and we reach also East and West Canada and Vermont on the north, and Maryland, Delaware and Eastern Virginia on the south, and all this without the necessity for a trans-shipment. Who can doubt that with the commerce created by the interchange of the productions of these vast regions floating on her bosom, the Chenango canal, including the little addition we propose, would become not only useful to the people of the valleys of the Chenango and Susquehanna and of the State generally, but profitable to the State treasury."

One of the great objects originally intended to be accomplished by the construction of the Chenango canal, is shown

by the public documents of that day to have been an interchange of the mineral productions of our own State for those of Pennsylvania. Exactly by what channel this was to be effected was not then understood. A few years thereafter, the construction of the North Branch canal of that State, was authorized by the Pennsylvania Legislature; a work long delayed by casualties and financial embarrassments, but now at length finally completed and in operation to the southern line of New York. Thus the opportunity is presented for carrying out the great leading object of the Chenango canal-of making the connection without which it cannot be said to be complete.

The sentiment existing half a century ago as to this extension of the New York canal system, is well shown by the following extract from the resolution of the Tioga County Supervisors, already cited:

"In the meantime, inducements for engaging in this work, which could not then have been foreseen, certainly not fully realized, have been developed and accumulated. The canal system of Pennsylvania has been greatly enlarged and her resources rapidly developed. Her coal trade, then in its infancy, has become immense. The coal fields by the Susquehanna valley, then scarcely known, except to a learned few as an interesting geological feature, have been not only extensively opened, but penetrated by the North Branch canal, and thus practically brought to the borders of our own State, offering for our use a fuel illimitable in quantity, in quality unsurpassed. It wants but a small outlay to allow it to float on through the Chenango, Erie, Black River, Champlain, and other canals, to the central, northern and eastern portions of our State, to warm our hearths, supply our furnaces and forges, and propel our steamboats, cars, and machinery of every description. In exchange for it, Pennsylvania wants not one dollar in money. She wants our iron ore, our limestone, our salt, our gypsum, our hydraulic cement, our surplus agricultural products. The boats that bring her coal to us, will take these back to her. We have, of most of them, an inexhaustible supply upon the very banks of the Chenango canal. Shall we not open the communication, and allow this exchange? Pennsylvania has done her part. Shall we not do ours? Shall New York not accept her sister's proffered embrace ?''

Steamboat navigation of the Hudson river was begun in 1808 and grew in importance and magnitude from that time forward until the volume of commerce on that river exceeded the tonnage of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers. The official (Government) report for the year 1907 gives the tonnage of the Hudson river at 16,403,642 tons, that of the Ohio river at 11,427,784 tons, and that of the Mississippi river at New Orleans at 4,036,594 tons.

Steamboat service on the Hudson river has been continuous from the building of the Clermont in 1808 and of a very high order of efficiency. The latest and one of the most commodious passenger vessels on any water of the world is the Henrich Hudson, of the day line between Albany and New York, licensed to carry 5,000 passengers.

All remember the famous Mary Powell, queen of steamers, which for many years held the world's record for speed, she having made the (then) phenomenal run of 26 miles per hour. The Hudson river steamers have been the best in the country, and in addition to those mentioned have included the Dean Richmond, Daniel Drew, New York, Albany and others celebrated for their sumptuous furnishings and equipment. The passenger service on the Hudson river is still large notwithstanding the fact that it is paralleled by excellent railway service on each side. The Hudson river, with its commodious and superbly equipped steamboats and with its picturesque scenery and towering palisades, and its historic places, has long been almost as popular and as celebrated as the Rhine with its historic castles, populous cities and flourishing vineyards. The tercentenary of its discovery is to be celebrated in an appropriate manner by the city and State of New York in 1909.

From a very early date Lake George has formed an important link in the route of military expeditions and of travel between Albany and Lake Champlain. It was discovered by Father Jogues in 1646 and named by him St. Sacrement. It has been likened by travelers to the Lake of Como, but its circumjacent mountains are not as lofty nor