strife, for the commerce of civilization, which had existed for the fur-trade, between the English colonies on the Atlantic and the French at Montreal and Quebec, before the conquest. A short portage divided Fort Stanwix, on the Mohawk (a principal branch of the Hudson,) from Wood Creek, which flowed into Oneida Lake, and thence, by the Onondaga River, into Lake Ontario, at Oswego, which latter place was the scene of more than one conflict between French and English and their savage allies, over one hundred years ago.

In 1817, the same year in which the canal bill passed at Albany, and a month earlier, the government of Upper Canada advertised for tenders for the improvement of the navigation between Lachine and Kingston, by the course of the river Rideau. The project of connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario, by the Welland Canal, first appears in print, November 29th, 1817, in a paper prepared by William Hamilton Merritt for Robert Gourlay. In 1818, a company was incorporated to construct the Lachine Canal, a project which had been mooted as early as 1795; and another, in 1819, for the construction of the canal at Chambly.

Thus, movements were on foot, in the center and at the two extremes,-to compass the objects aimed at by the state of New York,-before the completion of her canals had demonstrated their success; but, from various causes, at the head of which, no doubt, the separation of the provinces stood first, no actual commencement was made except with the Lachine Canal upon the Island of Montreal, and the Grenville Canal (by the Imperial government) on the Ottawa, until long after the completion of the Erie and Champlain canals.

The military canals, having been conceded to the province in 1853, and happily never having been required for other than commercial purposes, will be noticed under the head of the Ottawa River improvements.

Taking the three great routes of Canadian navigation in the order of their extent, we begin with the shortest.

LAKE CHAMPLAIN ROUTE.

The Richelieu or Iroquois River has a length of eighty miles between Sorel, on the St. Lawrence, and Rouse's Point, on Lake Champlain, with two obstructions to navigation in this distance. The first is overcome at St. Ours, about fourteen miles from Sorel, by a dam which deepens the water between this point and Chambly, and a lock-two hundred feet in length between the gates, and forty-five feet wide between the walls, with six feet depth of water-begun in 1844, and completed in 1849, at an outlay of $153,117.65. ~ The second is the rapids above Chambly, which are passed by a canal eleven and a half miles in length, with nine stone locks, each one hundred and twenty-four by twentyfour feet, and six feet of water; commenced in 1831, suspended in 1835, resumed in 1840, and completed in 1843, at a cost of $480,000. By means of these improvements, boats can pass from any part of the St. Lawrence into Lake Champlain, and thence, by the Northern Canal and the Hudson River, to the city of New York. Large quantities of lumber are transported by this route from the city of Ottawa to the Hudson River without transhipment.

Lake Champlain navigation extends into Canada as far as St. John's, at which point the river Richelieu is 29 feet higher than the St. Lawrence at Lachine, or 74 feet higher than the river at Montreal. The distance between Caughnawaga (opposite Lachine) and St. John's is about 25 miles in a direct line; but if Lake Champlain be made the feeder, a canal must make a detour to avoid high ground, which will give a length of 32 miles, and a cost of about two millions of dollars. Another plan is, to carry a feeder, 16 miles in length, from the Beauharnois Canal, on a level 37 feet higher than Lake Champlain, down to a point opposite

Caughnawaga, and feed a direct line of canal between this point and St. John's, which would be about eight miles shorter than the canal fed from the Champlain level; but as it would have 87 feet more lockage, this would nearly equalize the two routes, in point of time. This scheme, with the feeder made navigable, would cost about double the other, say four millions of dollars; and, with a feeder only, about three millions of dollars. The first scheme gives the minimum amount of lockage to the Ottawa lumber trade; the second, to the through trade from the West, unless the rapids are navigated by the freight boats, in which case these will not leave the St. Lawrence until they reach Caughnawaga; but the question of cost is conclusive between these two plans. Montreal claims that the terminus of the canal should be opposite that city: this has been objected to as causing the Ottawa and western trade to descend 45 feet, only to ascend the same again-besides adding to the length of the route.

OTTAWA ROUTE.

The Ottawa River, where it joins the St. Lawrence, divides so as to form the Island of Montreal, and about one-third of its volume, flowing by St. Anne's and Vaudreuil, (where it forms a large island called Isle Perrôt;) enters Lake St. Louis, and passes over the Lachine Rapids-its dark waters taking the Montreal side and forcing the blue St. Lawrence into mid-channel. The other two-thirds flows to the rear of Montreal Island, forming Little River, in which is another large island, Isle Jesus, and discharges into the St. Lawrence about fifteen miles below Montreal.

In connecting tide-water with the interior, the Lachine Canal is common to both the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa routes. Lachine, at the head of the first rapids on the St. Lawrence, may, therefore, be considered the starting point of this route; and the first place where the navigation has

been improved, is at St. Anne's, near the entrance to the Lake of Two Mountains. The rapid here is navigable at high water only; the opposite one of Vaudreuil, though affording a more circuitous route, was passable at all stages, and was, moreover, after 1832, aided by a lock for batteaux, built by a private company. In this way navigation was maintained until 1843, when the provincial government completed the lock at St. Anne's, which was commenced in 1839,-is two hundred feet long by forty-five feet wide, and, with the wing dam, cost $111,796. By means of this lock, a large passenger steamer is enabled to run from Lachine to Carillon at the foot of the Longue Sault of the Ottawa, a distance of forty-five miles. The Longue Sault and other rapids between Grenville and Carillon, a distance of twelve miles, are passed by three detached canals with locks, the upper and older of which was commenced, in 1819, by the Imperial government, upon the same dimensions as the old Lachine Canal, and remains unaltered to this day. The others were not so far advanced in 1828, when the enlargement of the Rideau Canal was decided on, and therefore have locks one hundred and twenty-eight to one hundred and thirty-four feet long, and thirty-three feet wide; and also extra lockage, because the lowest one is fed from the North River, a branch of the Ottawa. From Grenville to Ottawa the river is navigable, and a passenger steamer, (confined to the reach by being too large for the locks of the Grenville or Rideau canals,) runs in connection with portage railway between Grenville and Carillon, the steamer between Carillon and Lachine, and the railway thence to Montreal; thus making two railways and two steamers necessary to convey a passenger from Montreal to the city of Ottawa.

Above this city, the Chaudière Falls and the rapids near them obstruct the navigation for several miles; but a Macadam road connects with an iron steamer on the Chaudière

Lake. No attempt, beyond surveys, has been made to overcome the obstructions to ascending navigation immediately above Ottawa; but at the next point higher up (the Chats,) an abortive attempt to connect the Chaudière and Chats Lakes, which are three miles apart and have fifty feet difference of level, has been made. The obstructions at the Chats are at present surmounted by a horse railway, three miles in length, which conveys passengers and freight be tween the iron steamers which are running upon the two lakes. Two other steamers are plying still higher up, on reaches divided by rapids but connected by good portage roads; and by this means transportation is effected as far as the head of the Deep River, or to the foot of the rapids of the Deux Joachims, a point nearly three hundred miles from the mouth of the Ottawa. From this point upward the swift current and numerous rapids force a transfer from the steamboat to the bark canoe-from the highest to the lowest order of vessels for water transport.

THE RIDEAU CANAL.

The agitation of the canal question so soon after the peace of 1815, naturally gave military considerations a prominence in the discussion of the route; and thus we have seen that, in 1817, the first action taken by Upper Canada was with reference to this route. In 1824, the Imperial government offered to aid the upper province by a grant of £70,000 sterling, towards the construction of this canal; but the joint committee on internal navigation, in 1825, while admitting that this offer "ought to determine us to apply our first exertions to the communication between Kingston and Ottawa," was of opinion that, "regarding only the commercial interests of the province, in time of peace with the United States, the improvement of the river St. Lawrence would naturally first engage attention, because a much less expenditure would render this direct and nat