PART FOUR

CANALS OF THE UNITED STATES

AND CANADA

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THE ST. LAWRENCE CANALS.

The canals which constitute the Saint Lawrence system serve to overcome the rapids which lie between Montreal and the eastern end of Lake Erie. They have a combined length of 70 1/2 miles and a total lockage of 533 feet. Named in order from the east, the canals of the St. Lawrence system are: the Lachine, the Beauharnois, the Soulanges (which to a very large extent replaces the Beauharnois), the Cornwall and the Williamsburg. The Farrans Point, the Rapide Plat and the Galops canals comprise the Williamsburg canal. The Welland canal, connecting Lakes Ontario and Erie, is considered a part of the Saint Lawrence system as is also the smaller Murray canal.

THE LACHINE CANAL. - 141.

The Lachine canal was built for the purpose of enabling vessels to pass the rapids of St. Louis, better known as the Lachine rapids, situated just above Montreal, the head of ocean navigation on the St. Lawrence river. In 1815 an appropriation was made for its construction but no work was done at that time; later, in 1819, a private company was incorporated for the purpose of constructing the canal. This company, in turn, failing to act, a bill was passed in 1821 which repealed the act of incorporation and authorized the construction of the canal by the Government, which at once commenced construction. The British Government contributed £10,000 toward the accomplishment of this work. The canal was opened for navigation in 1825 and completed in 1826. The cost of construction amounted to $438,404. The canal was built with a depth of four and one-half feet. The width at water-surface was forty-eight feet and at the bottom twenty-eight. The locks were one hundred feet long and twenty feet wide.

These dimensions were found inadequate and enlargement of the canal was begun in 1840. During enlargement, navigation was not interrupted, the new locks being constructed beside the old ones, and the prism excavated during the closed season. This enlargement was sufficiently complete in 1848 to admit the passage of boats drawing eight and one-half feet of water, but the entire enlargement was not completed until 1862. The dimensions of the canal were then one hundred and twenty feet at water-surface and eighty feet at the bottom, with a navigable depth of nine feet. The locks were 200 feet long, 45 feet wide and nine feet deep on the sills, except the two just above Montreal, which were 16 feet deep on the sills. The cost up to this time was $2,587,532.

In the year 1871 it was decided to further enlarge this canal, together with the others in the Saint Lawrence system, in order to afford a navigable depth of twelve feet throughout. Before the work was undertaken, however, it was decided to make the depth nineteen feet, but this intention was never carried out. The prism was enlarged, first to a depth of twelve feet throughout, and then to fourteen feet. Two of the locks have a depth of eighteen feet on the miter-sills, and three, a depth of fourteen feet. The canal prism was not available for boats drawing fourteen feet of water until 1899. The old locks with nine feet of water on the sills are still available at the side of the new locks.

The total cost of construction on this canal, including all enlargements, etc., up to 1905, was $11,475,112.

BEAUHARNOIS CANAL. - 142.

This canal, built to overcome the "Cascades," "Cedar" and "Coteau" rapids is, in its entirety, 12 miles long and affords safe navigation between Lakes St. Francis and St. Louis.

After a number of projects had been considered as to the best route for this canal, in the year 1842, contracts were entered into for its construction on the south side of the river. The canal was completed in 1845, but was not found satisfactory. The channel was crooked and during low water was too shallow. For many years the canal was repeatedly improved by means of dams, regulating weirs and dykes, but was never entirely satisfactory. Now that the Soulanges canal is opened the Beauharnois canal will probably be abandoned.

The total amount expended for construction on this canal to 1905 was $1,636,690.

SOULANGES CANAL. - 143.

The largest canal of the Saint Lawrence system, and the most modern in its design and execution, is the Soulanges canal. This canal is on the north side of the river and serves the same purpose as the Beauharnois canal, which to a large extent it replaces. The canal is 14 miles long and the five locks in that distance have a total lift of 82 feet. The locks are of concrete, faced with cut stone, and are filled and emptied through culverts communicating with the lock-chamber through twenty cast iron pipes arranged ten on each side of the chamber. These pipes are each 2 1/2 feet in diameter. The gates and the sluices are operated by electricity and a lockage can be accomplished in fifteen minutes or less.

The canal opened to traffic in 1899 after the expenditure of $5,098,260 in construction. The total cost of construction to 1905 was $6,886,174.

CORNWALL CANAL. - 144.

The Cornwall canal, located west of the Beauharnois, was built with a depth of nine feet and was the first canal constructed of this depth, which afterwards was adopted as the standard. It is designed to furnish a passage around the Long Sault rapids, being on the north shore of the river. It is about 11 miles long and has a lockage of 48 feet.

In 1818 a joint commission was appointed by the Government of Upper and Lower Canada, which reported in favor of the improvement of the Saint Lawrence navigation between the head of Lakes St. Louis and St. Francis and also at the rapids above Lake St. Francis. It recommended the building of canals four feet deep, but nothing was accomplished.

In 1832 the Assembly of Upper Canada passed measures appropriating $280,000 for the improvement of the St. Lawrence, so as to permit navigation by vessels drawing nine feet of water. This measure stipulated that the Cornwall canal should be completed before the other proposed works leading to Ontario were undertaken. In 1833 a commission was appointed to carry on the construction of the canal; in 1834 the contracts were let. The rebellion and other causes retarded the work, the canal being opened in 1842 and completed in 1843. The canal was nine feet deep, 150 feet wide at water-surface and 100 feet wide on the bottom, except in those places where the down-going craft ran the rapids and only the up-bound boats used the canal; there the canal was only 50 feet wide on the bottom.

In order to make this canal navigable for vessels of the same class as those passing through the Welland canal, its enlargement was begun in 1876. This improvement was a part of a general plan to extend 14-foot navigation from the Great Lakes to the sea. The new locks, begun at this time, are 170 feet long, 45 feet wide and have a depth of 14 feet on the miter-sills at low water. The work of improving the channel between the locks has been continuous since 1876. The amount expended on this canal before the confederation of the provinces was $1,933,153, and the total cost to 1905 was $7,181,188.

THE WILLIAMSBURG CANALS. - 145, 146, 147.

The Farrans Point, the Rapide Plat and the Galops canals are all on the north side of the river and complete the list of canals leading to Lake Ontario. These canals were built between the years 1843 and 1856. The object of these, as of the other St. Lawrence canals, was to provide a route around rapids in the river.

The Farrans Point canal is situated about five miles west of the town of Dickinson's Landing - the head of the Cornwall canal. It was about three-quarters of a mile long with only 3 1/2 feet of lockage, and was opened to traffic in 1847. The enlargement of the canal, to accommodate vessels drawing 14 feet of water, was contracted for in 1897 and was wholly completed in 1901. By this enlargement the length of the canal was increased to 1 mile and the lockage to four feet. A "flotilla lock," 800 feet long and 45 feet wide, with 14 feet of water on the miter-sill, was built at the side of the old nine-foot lock, which was retained and repaired.

The Rapide Plat or Morrisburg canal, situated about 9 1/2 miles west of Farrans Point canal, is designed to overcome the rapids of Rapide Plat by a lock of 11 1/2 feet lift. It extends from the village of Morrisburg to Flaggs Bay, a distance of 3 2/3 miles. The work of enlarging this canal from the original nine-foot depth to the present depth of 14 feet was begun in 1884. The work on all portions was completed in 1905. The new lock, 270 feet long, 45 feet wide, with 14 feet of water on miter-sills, is built at the side of the old one, which is still preserved and was repaired for the use of vessels drawing less that nine feet of water.

Between the head of the Rapide Plat canal and the foot of the Galops canal there are 4 1/2 miles of river navigation. What is now known as the Galops canal was originally build in two sections and was opened to navigation in 1847 for nine-foot navigation. The easterly section, called the Point Iroquois canal, commenced at the village of Iroquois and extended to Presqu'ile, a distance of three miles. The lockage of this portion was 5 1/2 feet. The westerly section, the original Galops canal, commenced at the village of Cardinal and extended up-stream two miles to the head of the Galops rapid. About ten years after these canals were built they were connected by an embankment in the river called the "Junction canal." All of these are now included under the one name of Galops canal, having a total length of 7 1/3 miles and a lockage of 15 1/2 feet. In 1888 the upper entrance was improved and in 1897 the enlargement of the remainder of the canal was commenced. This enlargement is intended to furnish 14-foot navigation and is practically completed, with only one lift-lock it Iroquois.

The total cost of the original construction of the Williamsburg canals was $1,320,655, and the total cost of construction to 1905 was $10,185,853.

THE MURRAY CANAL. - 148.

The Murray canal extends through the Isthmus of Murray connecting the Bay of Quinti and Lake Ontario, thus enabling vessels to avoid open lake navigation. It is 5 1-6 miles long, has no locks and its minimum depth is eleven feet. The total cost of this canal to 1905 was $1,248,820.

THE WELLAND CANAL. - 149.

The Welland canal, connecting the western end of Lake Ontario with the eastern extremity of Lake Erie, is counted as one of the St. Lawrence system. The project of building a canal to allow the passage of vessels around Niagara falls was advocated as early as 1816 and from that time until 1824 various schemes were discussed. In that year the Welland Canal Company was incorporated to connect the two lakes by means of a canal and railway. This company began work in 1825 with a capital of $800,000, but its history was one of financial embarrassment. In 1833 the canal, without any railway, was completed from lake to lake, the company having received extensive aid from the government of Upper Canada and from the Imperial Government.

In 1837 the Government of the United Provinces converted its holdings of the bonds of the Welland Canal Company into stock and in 1841 purchased the remainder of the outstanding stock of this company, thereby gaining complete control of the canal. The locks were of wood, 100 feet long, 23 feet wide, with about eight feet of water on the miter-sills. The Board of Works, taking charge of the canal at this time, undertook at once the replacing of the wooden locks with structures of stone. The new locks were to be 120 feet long, 24 feet wide and were to have 8 1/2 feet of water on the miter-sills. In 1843 it was decided that the locks should be 150 feet long, 26 1/2 feet wide and that the depth on the miter-sills should be nine feet; also that the two entrance locks should have 11 1/2 feet of water on the miter-sills. In 1853 the depth of the canal prism was increased to ten feet and the bottom width, in earth sections, to 50 feet.

In 1871 the enlargement of this canal, so as to admit vessels drawing 12 feet, was decided upon and in 1876 the proposed depth was increased to 14 feet. The canal was opened for 14-foot navigation throughout its length in 1887. As enlarged, the canal consists in part of an entirely new route, the old line being maintained also, so that now there are two channels available for a portion of the length. The new line is 26 3/4 miles long, while the old is 27 1/2 miles long. From Allenburgh to Port Colberne, a distance of 15 miles, there is only one channel, the old canal having been enlarged to the new dimensions.

The total cost of construction to 1905 was $26,080,366.13.

SAULT STE. MARIE CANAL. - 150.

The Canadian canal around the rapid of St. Mary's river, between Lakes Huron and Superior, is usually called the Sault Ste. Marie, and the American canal, the St. Mary's, so as to distinguish them.

The first canal on the Canadian side was built in 1796-8 by the Hudson Bay Company in about the same location as occupied by the present canal. There was but one lock, 38 feet long, 8 feet 9 inches wide and with a 9-foot lift. There was a tow-path at the side and oxen were used to tow bateaux through the lock. This lock was destroyed in 1814 by United States troops.

The present Canadian canal is about 5,967 feet long, 150 feet wide and 22 feet deep. The work was begun in 1888 and completed in 1895. There are no tolls on this canal and none on the canal on the American side. The division of traffic between them is controlled by the convenience of the moment only, and is without special significance. It is customary, therefore, to give simply the total traffic through both canals, and that rule has been followed here. (See St. Mary's canal for statement of traffic.)

The total cost of construction to 1905 was $4,423,676.

THE OTTAWA CANALS.

Some of the canals formerly included under the title of "The Rideau System," are now called the "Ottawa Canals." They are the Ste. Anne's Lock, the Carillon, the Chute-a-Blondeau and the Grenville canals. These, together with the Rideau, make possible a route extending from the harbor of Montreal to the port of Kingston on Lake Ontario, including in the route the Lachine canal and the navigable section of the lower Ottawa river. The Carillon, the Chute-a-Blondeau and the Grenville canals were originally referred to as the "Military Canals," having been projected after the War of 1812, to give a water route other than the St. Lawrence. They were constructed by the Imperial Government and in 1857 were transferred to the Government of Canada.

THE STE. ANNE'S LOCK. - 151.

The Ste. Anne's lock was constructed to enable vessels to pass the Ste. Anne rapids at the mouth of the Ottawa river. The work was recommended to the Parliament of Lower Canada in 1831, but was not begun until 1840. The canal was completed in 1843, but since that time there have been various enlargements. The total cost to 1905 was $1,170,216.

THE CARILLON CANAL. - 152.

The Carillon canal is 27 miles from the Ste. Anne's lock and is on the north side of the Ottawa river. It was projected in 1819 and completed by the Imperial Government. The work of enlargement was begun in 1873 and completed in 1882.

THE CHUTE-A-BLONDEAU CANAL. - 153.

The Chute-a-Blondeau canal is four miles up the river from the Carillon canal, a cut through rock on the north side of the river. No walls were built, except to receive lock-gates.

THE GRENVILLE CANAL. - 154.

The Grenville canal is 1 3-8 miles beyond the Chute-a-Blondeau canal. It is also on the north side of the river and was built to overcome the Grenville rapids. The enlargement of this canal was begun in 1871 and completed in 1887. The total cost of the Carillon and Grenville canals to 1905 amounted to $4,182,093. The first boat passed through this system of canals in 1835.

THE RIDEAU CANAL. - 155.

The Rideau canal formerly included with the Ottawa canals under name of the "Rideau System," extends from the City of Ottawa of Kingston and makes the Rideau and Cataraqui navigation available for a distance of 126 1/4 miles. The total cost of this canal to 1905 was $4,085,889.

The Lachine canal, although a part of this system, has already been described among the canals of the St. Lawrence system.

THE CHAMBLY CANAL. - 156.

The Chambly canal was designed to connect the navigation of the St. Lawrence with that of the Hudson river by way of the Richelieu river, Lake Champlain and the Champlain canal. In 1818 a company was incorporated by an act of Parliament of Lower Canada to construct this canal. It was empowered to build canals and otherwise to improve the navigation of the Richelieu river, but nothing was done by this company. In 1831 the construction of this canal was begun by the Government of Lower Canada under an act appropriating £60,000. Work continued until this amount and £6,000 additional was expended. In 1840 operations were resumed and in 1843 the canal was opened to navigation. The construction was found to be faulty and most unsatisfactory, and it became necessary, to a large extent, to reconstruct the canal in 1858.

The Richelieu river joins the St. Lawrence about 46 miles below Montreal and the Chambly canal is about 46 miles from its mouth. The canal lies on the west side of the river and extends for twelve miles, - from Chambly basin to St. John. The river between these points is practically a continuous rapid, the fall being about 74 feet in the twelve miles, and the canal furnished the only means of passing.

The St. Ours lock and dam are situated 32 miles below the canal proper and fourteen miles above the mouth of the river and are a part of this system of navigation. They were built between the years 1844 and 1848 at a cost of about $121,538. Associated with this lock and dam there is also one-eighth of a mile of canal proper. The Richelieu river itself has been largely improved by dredging, but its depth has always been the limiting factor to traffic by this route.

The total cost of construction to 1905 was $637,057.

THE TRENT CANAL. - 157.

The term "Trent Canal" is applied to a series of water stretches, which do not form a connected system of navigation, and which, in their present condition, are efficient for local use only. The route of the Trent canal runs through a chain of lakes and rivers, which would, if completed, form a continuous line of navigation between Lake Ontario at Trenton and Georgian Bay near Midland.

About 1820 the Imperial Government undertook the construction of this canal as a part of a system of canals for opening up the country; navigable stretches of from twenty-five to thirty miles were created by means of locks, dams, etc. The money for completing the entire distance from Trenton to Balsam lake was voted, but was used to subdue the McKensie rebellion. The work on this canal was then abandoned, but in 1880 it was started again and continued until about 1888. Several locks and dams and sections of canal were built during this period. Nothing further was done, however, until 1894, when work was again started, but it is not yet completed. The total outlay on this system to 1905 was $4,957,654.

At Peterborough on this canal, there is one of the most notable locks in the world. It consists of two balanced tanks rising and falling vertically between masonry guide-towers. The two tanks are so balanced that, when a boat enters the lower one, the introduction of a comparatively small amount of water in the upper tank suffices to raise the lower one to the upper level, while the tank formerly at the upper level sinks to the lower position. The total lift of this lock is 65 feet, which is greater that the lift of any similar lock in the world. It will admit the passage of 800-ton barges and cost $500,000.

SAINT PETER'S CANAL. - 158.

St. Peter's canal differs from the other Canadian canals in that it is not connected with the waterway from the Great Lakes to the sea. It connects the Bras d'Or lakes of Nova Scotia with the Atlantic ocean, by way of St. Peter's bay. The total cost of construction to 1905 was $648,547.

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A few years ago a monograph on the "Canals of Canada" was prepared by Mr. Thomas C. Keefer, which treats the whole subject of constructed canals so well and so concisely, that permission has been obtained from the author to insert the paper here, that portion relating to projected waterways, however, being omitted. Explanatory foot-notes have been inserted by Mr. S.J. Chapleau, of the Department of Railways and Canals, Ottawa, Canada.

CANALS OF CANADA

(Paper read before the Royal Society of Canada, 1893)

by

Thomas C. Keefer, C.M.G, F.R.S.C.

INTRODUCTION.

The Bridgewater canal, which inaugurated a system of inland navigation that gave to Britain above five thousand miles of artificial waterways before the railway era, and established the reputation of James Brindley as the Father of English Hydraulic Engineers, was authorized by the Parliament of Great Britain in the same year which Wolfe scaled the heights of Abraham and made Canada a British possession.

The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 was followed by the opening of a Canadian railway in 1836, which connected the navigation of the St. Lawrence with that of Lake Champlain. In like manner (but at a much earlier date) canal construction in England was followed by canal agitation in her new possessions upon the St. Lawrence.

Silas Deane, a Connecticut man, who had been a member of the first Continental Congress, and was with Franklin in Paris (in 1776), brought the matter of a canal from the St. Lawrence to Lake Champlain, via Chambly, before Haldimand and his successor Lord Dorchester, Governors of Quebec, as early as 1775. He appears also to have advocated a canal making this connection above Montreal - a project since known as the Caughnawaga canal. Lord Dorchester expressed the opinion that such a canal "would be practicable and useful both in a commercial and political view." Adam Lymburner, in 1791, renewed the proposal, as noted, for an outlet for Vermont and northern New York. Ira Allen, in 1796, addressed the Duke of Portland "on behalf of the State of Vermont" upon the same subject. Some one in the Duke's office was apprehensive that such a canal might "tend to disseminate republican principles among His Majesty's Canadian subjects;" but it may be assumed that the needs of the St. Lawrence route, rather then fear of political consequences, relegated this canal scheme to a later period.

The first lock between Lake Huron and Lake Superior was made by a Canadian company in the closing years of the last century. One of the northwest fur trading companies of Montreal cut a roadway forty-five feet wide across the portage on the north or Canadian side of the Sault. Ste. Marie and opened "a canal upwards of three hundred feet in length, with a lock which raised the water nine feet." This lock, thirty-eight feet long and eight feet and three-quarters wide, was built like a flume, the posts of which at the lower end were high enough to permit boats to pass under their cape. A windlass raised the lower gates, but the upper ones were "folding," with sluices therein to fill the lock. A planked flume the width of the lock, three hundred feet long and six feet high, conducted the boats into this lock. A round log cribbing the whole length of the canal, twelve feet in width, forming a tow-path for the oxen used in dragging the boats up-stream. As the whole fall at the Sault is eighteen feet, and the lock only dealt with half of this, the canal or channel above must have had a surface inclination of three feet in a thousand. It was completed in 1798. In July, 1814, this post was pillaged and burned by Major Holmes at the head of one hundred and fifty Americans, when it is supposed that this lock (with the wooden banks of its canal) was "burned to the water's edge."

FRENCH REGIME.

{Quebec fell September 13, 1759.}

PROVINCIAL EFFORTS.

The Lachine Canal was taken up by the Legislature of Lower Canada after the war of 1812, and money voted in 1815 therefor, but nothing was done. In 1819 a company was incorporated, which did not proceed. In 1821, Government commissioners were appointed and the work was completed in 1825. This first canal was twenty-eight feet wide on bottom, forty-eight feet wide at water-surface, and four and a half feet deep. The locks were seven in number, one hundred feet long, and twenty feet wide in chambers, and built of excellent masonry. The total rise from Montreal to Lachine is forty-five feet. The canal had been projected and its construction advocated by Adam Lymburner in 1791, but the reason why locks were first constructed higher up the St. Lawrence (at the Cascades and Coteau, 1783) was because Lachine is only seven miles from Montreal, and was the starting point of the brigades of bateaux, the loads for which could be carted from Montreal.

The first Lachine canal was doubtless built as part of a system, because a joint commission for Upper and Lower Canada had in 1818 reported in favor of a canal system for the St. Lawrence, with four feet depth of water, that being the depth of the Erie canal. Within a year after the opening of the Lachine, Col. By - the Royal Engineer then constructing the Rideau canal - recommended for the St. Lawrence longer and wider locks, with double the depth of water, and in 1832, Upper Canada voted for a minimum of nine feet water. Nevertheless, twenty years elapsed after the opening of the first Lachine canal before the last of the St. Lawrence canals was completed, and this was then on a scale as to dimensions of locks and depth of water more than double that of the old Lachine.

The next in order of construction, although not of position upon the main line of the St. Lawrence navigation, was:

UNITED CANADA.

The St. Lawrence Canals. The Cornwall canal was commenced by Upper Canada in 1834, suspended by the rebellion of 1837, and not resumed until after the reunion, when it was completed in 1843. Its lock dimensions were a great advance upon the old Lachine or upon the new Welland, being two hundred feet long by fifty-five feet wide in the chambers, and the depth of water nine feet. These dimensions appear to have been adopted to pass the short side-wheel steamers required for quick turning in running the rapids. There was no enlargement of this canal previous to the confederation of the British North American Provinces in 1867, because no greater dimensions were established by the Province of Canada in 1841 for the remainder of the St. Lawrence canals. This canal was eleven and one-half miles long with seven locks, and a total lockage of forty-eight feet. The breadth on bottom of canal was one hundred feet and on water surface one hundred and fifty feet.

The Lachine Canal. The first enlargement of this old canal was in progress simultaneously with those above it, but it was not opened upon the new dimensions (similar to those of the Beauharnois) until 1848.

The Williamsburg Canals. The three smaller canals above the Cornwall, at "Farran's Point," "Rapide Plat" and "The Galops," known collectively as the Williamsburg canals (so called from their situation in a township of that name), were completed in 1847 upon the Beauharnois scale. These three canals, with a combined length of twelve miles and an aggregate lockage of thirty-one feet, are not necessary to the descending navigation, and are not used by the passenger steamers going up, - the rapids which they avoid being navigable in both directions by steamers; but for the upper one, "The Galops," a lock has been put in below the strongest current (about four thousand feet from the head), by which ascending boats may keep the river up to this lock, and thus avoid seven miles of canal. The section of the Galops rapids where the heaviest water is, has been deepened to seventeen feet to provide for the safe passage of descending lake vessels drawing fourteen feet while pitching through the swells of this rapid.

Thus upon the completion of the first enlargement of the Lachine canal, in 1848, a boat nearly one hundred and forty feet long, twenty-six feet beam, and nine feet draught could for the first time pass from Montreal to Chicago. The notable feature of the St. Lawrence section of the Canadian canals is that although there are forty miles of canal and over two hundred feet of lockage, steamers of five hundred tons and over daily descend from Lake Ontario to Montreal, during the navigable season, without using lock or canal. Though the fall is, in some of the rapids, over forty feet per mile, all are navigable downwards by boats drawing six to eight feet, according to river level.

THE DOMINION OF CANADA.

As the Province of Canada, in 1841, commenced the improvement of the inland navigation by the enlargement of the Welland and Lachine, and the completion of the remaining St. Lawrence canals with uniformity only as to depth of canal between tide-water and the upper lakes, so, thirty years later (after confederation in 1867 with the maritime provinces, and the acquisition of the Northwest Territories from the Hudsons Bay Company), the Dominion of Canada took up the question of inland navigation.

A canal commission was appointed in November, 1870, which reported in February, 1871, advising a uniform scale of navigation for the St. Lawrence and Welland canals, with locks two hundred and seventy feet long by forty-five feet wide in the chambers, and with twelve feet depth of water upon the mitre sills. Before, however, any locks were constructed, the Dominion Parliament, in 1875, without dealing with lock dimensions, ordered the enlarged canals to be deepened so as to pass vessels drawing fourteen feet of water.

In arriving at lock dimensions and draught of water the commission of 1871 seem to have been governed by the then prevailing size of the majority of the vessels on the upper lakes, as well as by the then depth of water in the harbors. But, while the commissioners recommended twelve feet, they gave the depth of seventeen harbors, twelve of which had, or were capable of having fourteen feet and over, and they stated that this draught had then been reached through the St. Clair Flats, and made the significant comment that "as fast as the channel was deepened the draught of the vessels increased." These considerations doubtless influenced Parliament in increasing the depth. Moreover, while providing a lock for vessels of two hundred and fifty feet length, the commissioners noted that fact that, in 1871, at least two screw steamers then in commission on the lakes were two hundred and sixty-five feet long, and they referred to the lock at Sault Ste. Marie, which had been then fifteen years in use with a length of three hundred and fifty feet. They thought it "extremely unwise to embark in magnificent schemes with a view of introducing ocean vessels into the canals or lakes," and therefore leaned to moderate conditions as defined by existing traffic instead of anticipating any such expansion as had already enforced two enlargements of our canals.

Sault Ste. Marie. The canal commission of 1871 proposed to extend their uniform scale of lock dimensions (270 by 45 by 12) to Lake Superior, although there was then in operation upon the American side at the Sault two locks 350 by 70 by 12. It is fortunate that the construction of the canal at this point has been delayed until the present decade.

Although Canada is only now constructing a canal to reach Lake Superior, this completion of the Canadian system has always been kept in view. In 1846 and again in 1852, before the canal was commenced upon the Michigan side, the Province of Canada made surveys and estimates for a canal at the Sault, and it was included in the scheme of the canal commission about twenty-five years later. At neither of these dates was there any Canadian commerce upon Lake Superior, and this is the strongest evidence that the Canadian canals looked chiefly to the northwestern states of the Union for their support. This is also confirmed by the history of the Welland canal, which was first built by a joint stock company having its principal share-holders in New York and England, as also by the fact that the canal commission of 1870 were instructed to advise "the best means to attract a large and increasing share of the trade of the northwestern portion of North America through Canadian waters, such as will enable Canada to compete successfully for the transit trade of the great western country."

SUBMERGED CANALS BELOW MONTREAL.

This historical sketch of the main canal system, Montreal to Lake Superior, would be incomplete without a reference to the great work of deepening the channel of the St. Lawrence from eleven to twenty-seven and one-half feet between Montreal and Quebec. Commenced by the Government of Canada in 1844, it was abandoned in 1847 and taken up again in 1850 by the harbor commissioners of Montreal, and carried on at the expense of the trade of the port. The original low water depth of eleven feet in 1850 was increased in 1851 to fourteen feet; in 1852 to sixteen and one-half; in 1857 to eighteen feet; in 1865 to twenty feet. Resumed in 1874 it was in 1878 increased to twenty-two feet; in 1882 to twenty-five feet and in 1888 to twenty-seven and one-half feet. The work was then taken over and its cost assumed by the Dominion Government, to the great relief of the Harbor Trust. The total cost is about four millions of dollars, of which over half a million is for dredging plant.

The total length of channel deepened is about fifty miles, of which about eighteen miles are in Lake St. Peter. There is a continuous cut of about sixteen miles in the bottom of the lake, three hundred feet wide, and ranging from fifteen to seventeen feet in depth.

SUMMARY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE ROUTE.

From Montreal to the head of the St. Lawrence canals (which is about eight miles below Ogdensburg) the distance is about one hundred and eleven miles, of which forty-three miles are canal, forth-eight miles lake and twenty miles river. Commencing at Montreal the distribution and the names of the St. Lawrence canals are as follows:

From the head of the St. Lawrence canals to the foot of the Welland canal the distance is two hundred and twenty-six miles, of which one hundred and sixty are in Lake Ontario. The Welland, as now enlarged, is twenty-six and one-half miles long, and has twenty-five locks, with a total lockage of three hundred and twenty-six and three-quarter feet, all of which is embraced in the first ten miles from Lake Ontario.

From the head of the Welland canal to the foot of the Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie, the distance is about six hundred miles. The length of the Sault canal upon the Canadian side is about three thousand, five hundred feet, with one lock of eighteen feet lift, but the under excavation, for deepening the approaches to nineteen feet at extreme low water, will be several times the length of the visible canal. The total length of canal and approaches is eighteen thousand, one hundred feet. From the Sault to Port Arthur is two hundred and sixty-six miles and Duluth three hundred and ninety miles. The completion of this canal at the Sault will extend Canadian inland navigation, from the ocean vessel at Montreal, over fourteen hundred miles of fresh water, with less than seventy-five miles of canal, and with about five hundred and fifty-one feet of lockage to reach Lake Superior, the surface of which is six hundred feet above tide.

The locks of the Canadian canals, with the exception of those now under construction at the Sault and the Soulanges canal, have moderate lifts, and are repetitions of the simple and economical features of the original Welland canal. The lock floors are of wood, and their upper gates the same height as their lower one - the filling and emptying being through valves in these gates.

The Soulanges canal and that at Sault Ste. Marie are new departures. The chambers are filled and emptied by culverts in the side walls or floor which, in the first, is of masonry, and the upper gates rest upon curved gates, automatic sluices at weirs, as well as swing bridges; which last are without usual central pivot piers - thus opening the full width of the channel. Portland cement concrete will generally be substituted for the masonry in the Soulanges works.

THE LATERAL CANALS.

The Chambly Canal. The Richelieu river, by which Lake Champlain discharges its waters, is, by position and navigable qualities, the most important tributary of the St. Lawrence, with the single exception of the Ottawa. Lake Champlain is over ninety feet above tide, and the summit between it and the Hudson river is only sixty feet more. This lake and the Hudson lie in the same north and south direction upon almost an air line between Montreal and New York. The navigable waters of Lake Champlain are extended northward by the Richelieu river to St. Johns, which is only twenty-five miles from the St. Lawrence at the point above Montreal where a connecting canal between the two rivers, known as the Caughnawaga canal, has long been proposed.

At St. John's the Chambly canal extends twelve miles northward (and down-stream) with nine locks, each one hundred and eighteen feet long, twenty-three feet wide, with seven feet water, and a total of seventy-four feet lockage. This canal was put under contract in 1831, but was not completed until after the Union of 1841, and has not since been enlarged. Between the foot of this canal and the mouth of the Richelieu at Sorel (a distance of forty-six miles) the river is made navigable by a dam and lock at St. Ours, thirty-two miles from Chambly and fourteen from Sorel. This lock of five and one-half feet lift was constructed, 1844-9, upon the enlarged scale of two hundred feet by forty-five in the chamber, with seven feet water. The cost of this navigation, with its ten locks and seventy-nine feet of lockage, has been about $750,000.

The Ottawa and Rideau Route. The St. Lawrence route was, by the Royal Engineers, considered to be too near the frontier for a military one. The influence of the Imperial Government was exerted in favor of an interior route between Montreal and Kingston, via the Ottawa and Rideau rivers. The Provincial Government of Upper Canada was offered, in 1824, financial assistance if it would undertake the Rideau canal (which is within the Provincial territory), but it declined upon the ground that the St. Lawrence would best serve the commercial interests of the country. The Home Government, in 1826, decided to carry out this inland communication, which had been commenced upon the Ottawa and Grenville, midway between Montreal and the Rideau, in 1819. Seven locks were constructed, one hundred and six and one-half feet by nineteen and one-half feet in the chamber, with six feet water, but the remaining ones upon the Ottawa were, in 1828, enlarged to one hundred and twenty-nine by thirty-two, with the same depth of water.

The Military Canals, between Carillon and Grenville, were three in number, and overcame a fall in the Ottawa river of nearly sixty feet. Carillon was the lowest, Grenville the highest, and the intermediate one (since abolished) was known as the "Chute-a-Blondeau." The Carillon canal climbed twenty-one and one-half feet over a rocky bluff by two combined locks, the side walls of which were formed by the rock cutting, and then descended thirteen feet by one lock to the river, and was supplied by a feeder from the North river. In the recent enlargement a dam at Carillon raises the river nine feet, drowning out the rapids and substituting six and one-half miles of new canals and seven locks for seven miles of old canal with eleven locks. There are now only two canals - the Carillon, three-quarters of a mile long, with two locks and thirteen feet lockage, and the Grenville, five and three-quarter miles long, with five locks and forty-three and three-quarter feet lockage, separated by a navigable reach of river five and one-half miles. These two canals are now enlarged to the scale fixed for the Ottawa and Lake Champlain route, the locks two hundred by forty-five by nine feet water; but are useless for this route until the Chambly canal and that at St. Ours are enlarged and deepened - works which will doubtless be delayed until there is an enlargement of the New York State canal between Lake Champlain and the Hudson river.

The total new lockage between Lachine and the Rideau at Ottawa is sixty-two and three-quarters feet (of which three feet is at Ste. Anne), and is the minimum possible between these points.

The Rideau Canal. The total lockage on the one hundred and twenty-six miles of this route between the Ottawa river (at Ottawa) and Kingston, upon Lake Ontario, is four hundred and forty-six and one-quarter feet. From the Ottawa river it ascends two hundred and eighty-two and one-quarter feet by thirty-four locks, in a distance of eighty-seven and one-half miles to the summit level of the Rideau lakes, and then descends one hundred and sixty-four feet by thirteen locks in a distance of thirty-eight and three-quarter miles to Lake Ontario. There are twenty-four stone dams, two of which are thirty-three and sixty-eight feet high, respectively.

These military canals were handed over to Canada by the Imperial Government in 1853.

Considerable expenditure has been made upon the upper Ottawa at two points, and also upon the Back lake system near Peterboro', as well as upon the River Trent (the outlet of these lakes into the Bay of Quinte), which bay is the head of the St. Lawrence river navigation.

Upon the Ottawa river, above Ottawa, nearly the same amount has been expended upon the same principle of connecting isolated navigable stretches not connected with any outlet east or west. But in the Ottawa case the works have been abandoned, either before completion or since. The only completed, though unused one, was so leisurely prosecuted that the railway ran past it and rendered it unnecessary. The locks that are built are of wood, two hundred by forty-five by five feet of water, and are therefore no contribution to a future ship canal from Montreal to Lake Huron.

St. Peter's Canal. This is a tide level canal about half a mile in length connecting the Bras d'Or lake, a salt water estuary in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, with St. Peter's Bay on the Atlantic. The first survey was made by one of Telford's engineers, in 1821, but work was not commenced until 1854. It was suspended in 1859, when the provincial engineer recommended a marine railway instead of the tidal lock. It was, however, resumed in 1864 and completed after confederation, with a lock one hundred and twenty-two by twenty-six with thirteen feet of water upon the sill. A new lock two hundred by forty-eight has replaced the old and the canal has been deepened to nineteen feet. The extreme rise and fall of the tide in St. Peter's Bay is nine feet - the range in the Bras d'Or lake being about one-third of that outside. The tidal lock has four pairs of gates and the whole expenditure has been $845,000.

Two short canals without locks connect Burlington Bay at the head, and Bay of Quinte at the foot, of Lake Ontario, with that lake.

The Burlington Canal. The Burlington canal is a short cut through the sand beach at the head of Lake Ontario and gives access to the port of Hamilton, Ontario. It has cost $433,000.

The Murray Canal. The other is known as the Murray canal, projected in the last century when a land grant was set apart for it. It has only been recently opened with eleven feet of water at a cost of $2,216,000 for a length of five miles from end to end of entrance piers.

The Desjardins Canal. A private company before our railway era opened a canal from Burlington bay to Dundas at a cost of about $100,000, by which lake schooners could ascend to that town. It was between three and four miles long and was called the Desjardins canal, but is now remembered only as the scene of a frightful railway accident in 1837.

Grand River Navigation Company. Another company, by means of dams and locks (and Indian money chiefly) extended a boat navigation in connection with the Welland canal, sixty miles up the Grand river - after that river was dammed in order to use it as a feeder to the Welland - at a cost of $200,000. This also has been superseded by the railways.

The only new canal undertaken by the Dominion was for the improvement of Rainy river, an affluent of the Lake of the Woods by a lock and dam at Fort Francis. This was an attempt to utilize the natural water stretches in order to reach the Northwest at a time when the country had not as yet grown to sufficient confidence in its own resources and ability to carry out the Canadian Pacific Railway; and it was abandoned therefore as soon as that work was undertaken.

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Transcribed from the original and html prepared by Bill Carr, last updated 2/21/99.