Rapids. Batteaux, which ran down loaded, were dragged up light and took in their up cargo at Lachine, to which point it was carted from Montreal. The result of this first expenditure proving satisfactory, a similar sum was given the following year for the rapids between Montreal and Lake St. Francis. Nothing further was done until 1818, when commissioners were appointed to meet those from Upper Canada about the improvement of the water communication between the provinces, both by the St. Lawrence and Ottawa routes. In that year, also, a company was incorporated to construct the Lachine Canal within three years, and another for the Chambly Canal, to be completed in seven years. In 1821, the Lachine Canal was assumed by the province, the company having failed to act; and in 1823 a similar course was taken, for the same reason, with the Chambly Canal, coupled with the proviso that it should not be commenced until the Lachine was completed. In 1831 an appropriation was made for ascertaining if loaded batteaux could be taken up the rapids between Lakes St. Francis and St. Louis, and whether steamers, about the ultimate power of which great expectations had been formed, could not ascend the cascades to Prescott. This was a scheme for "reducing the grade" of the river at the rapids, by which it was hoped currents of twelve or fourteen miles per hour could be reduced one-half. Cuts forming inclined planes were made at Mill Point below the Cedars, at Point au Diable, the Rigolet, and French's Run; but nothing beyond the expenditure of the money resulted from this movement, with which the action of Lower Canada in respect to the improvement of the St. Lawrence terminated.

The first movement of Upper Canada was an advertisement dated 19th February, 1817, in which the lieutenantgovernor invited tenders for the work of rendering the whole or any portion of the water communication between Lachine and Kingston, by the course of the river Rideau,

navigable for boats drawing two feet of water and ten feet in width, and also for boats drawing three feet of water and twelve feet in width. The route defined was by Irish Creek and Rideau and Mud Lakes; the number and position of the locks were to be specified, and "the number of flood gates in each lock." The next year £2,000 (or $8,000) was granted for a survey of the St. Lawrence, and in 1821 commissioners were appointed. In 1823 and 1824, £2,000 (or $8,000) more were granted to this commission of which Robert Nichol was vice-president, and James Gordon and Charles Jones, members. On the death of Colonel Nichol, his place was filled by John Macaulay. As the views of the country with respect to the scale of the proposed navigation became enlarged each successive year, the magnitude of the undertaking evidently alarmed the Legislature. Even the offer of £70,000 stg. ($350,000) by the Imperial government towards opening the Rideau route, failed to elicit more than an expression of gratitude and a promise of early consideration. The Legislature leaned to the St. Lawrence as the natural commercial route, having only about one-half of the lockage of the Rideau route; and were, moreover, convinced that it would be the cheaper of the two. The Imperial government, desiring the control of the work for military purposes, set about the Rideau Canal themselves, in 1826, on an estimate of £169,000 stg. ($845,000,) and completed it in 1832 at a cost of £900,000 stg. ($4,500,000)-a result which may fully account for the hesitation of the Legislature, in 1825, in accepting the £70,000 ($350,000) and undertaking the work.

The opening of the Rideau route failed to satisfy the wants of the trade. The lock at Vaudreuil was in the hands of a private company; those at Grenville were much less in size than the ones above and below them; fixed bridges prevented masted vessels from going through and the absence of a towing-path made forwarding a monopoly,

and caused the delay and expense of locking a steam-tug through with every freight. Moreover, the canal was managed as a military rather than commercial undertaking -the parties in charge being beyond the reach of authority or opinion in the colony. No sooner had it been tried, therefore, than the improvement of the St. Lawrence was set about; a grant being made for the Cornwall Canal in 1883, and this work was commenced in 1834.

In describing the several works embraced in the improvment of the St. Lawrence, we commence at tide-water with

LAKE ST. PETER.

About fifty miles below Montreal, at the lowest point uninfluenced by tide, the St. Lawrence spreads out into a broad and shallow expanse called Lake St. Peter. The depth at low-water upon these flats was only eleven feet, and sea-going vessels were consequently obliged to lighten in entering and leaving Montreal, which city, notwithstanding this disadvantage, maintained her position as the emporium for the import trade, and of all exports except timber, in which latter trade the tidal harbor and roomy coves of Quebec defy competition. As there were only two or three comparatively insignificant bars above Lake St. Peter, and none below, and as the bed of the lake was soft, it was proposed to deepen the channel by dredging, so that sixteen feet draft of water might be carried up to Montreal. This was first attempted by the government in 1844, when the engineers endeavored to induce old Father St. Lawrence to leave the bed in which he had lain since first he emerged from the ocean, and follow a "straight cut," to be dredged to the required depth. The work was so managed that, after expending $295,619, it was suspended in 1847, and the Legislature, after investigation, abandoned it in disgust; whereupon the Hon. John Young, on behalf of the harbor

commissioners of Montreal, after four years had elapsed, obtained permission to try again, and the work was recommenced in 1851. By following the natural channel, complete success has been obtained, with much less time and money, and a vessel drawing not sixteen but eighteen feet of water can now come up. It is intended to continue operations until twenty feet at low-water is obtained; and as the government, having had its practicability demonstrated, has assumed the expense, it is to be hoped this work will be carried out.

THE LACHINE CANAL.

The original canal between Montreal and Lachine, commenced in 1821 and completed in 1825 at a cost of £110,000 (or $440,000,) was an admirably constructed work, with cut-stone locks, one hundred and eight feet long between the gates, and twenty feet wide, with fixed bridges of the same class of masonry. In these, as in the locks of the Rideau and St. Lawrence canals, the upper gates were placed upon breast walls, which reduced the effective length of the lock. On the Welland Canal, the upper gates being carried down to the level of the lower ones, the whole length between the gates is available.

The enlargement of the old Lachine boat canal, in connection with the construction and completion of the remainder of the St. Lawrence ship canals, was one of the immediate consequences of the reunion in 1841, thus confirming the views of Mr. Macaulay, in 1825, as to the impolicy of its substantial stone locks of boat size only. The enlargement, begun in 1843, was sufficiently advanced in 1848 for the passage of large vessels, and was completed in 1849, except the widening of a portion of the rock-cut near Lachine which is now in progress. This canal, eight and a half miles long with forty-four feet lockage, surmounts the obstacles presented by the Lachine Rapids, and con

nects Lake St. Louis, an enlargement of the St. Lawrence, with the harbor of Montreal.

THE BEAUHARNOIS CANAL.

The next in order is the Beauharnois Canal on the opposite or south bank of the St. Lawrence, and the only one upon that side, eleven miles long with eighty feet lockage, commenced in 1842 and completed in 1849. It connects Lake St. Louis with Lake St. Francis, overcoming three considerable rapids, united together by a swift current, and known as the Coteau, the Cedars, and the Cascades.

THE CORNWALL CANAL.

At the upper end of Lake St. Francis, the Cornwall Canal, twelve miles long with fifty feet lockage, reaches the head of the Longue Sault Rapids. This work was undertaken by Upper Canada alone in 1834, and carried on until 1838, by which time £440,000 (or $1,760,000) had been expended. It was completed after the union, at an additional cost of £75,000 (or $300,000,) and opened for traffic in 1843.

THE WILLIAMSBURG CANALS.

From the Cornwall Canal to Prescott, a distance of thirtyeight miles, there are four minor rapids,-Farrans Point, Rapid Plât, Point Iroquois, and Les Gallopes,-with a united lockage of twenty-two and a half feet, at which four separate canals were first constructed, the two upper of which have since been united by the Junction Canal. These canals were commenced in 1843; the upper one was opened to the trade in 1846 and the remainder in 1847.

The notable feature of the St. Lawrence navigation is, that although between Prescott and Montreal, a distance of one hundred and fifteen miles, there are forty and one-half miles of canal, and twenty-seven locks with two hundred