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 resorted to. A few responded but the "large majority continued delinquent." In accordance with the threat of the directors, it was announced in public advertisements that forty-six shares of stock in the Potomac Company would be offered at auction at the court house at Alexandria on Monday, May 14, and nine shares at Shuter's tavern in Georgetown on May 21. The attitude of the general public toward the Potomac improvement scheme was revealed clearly at these auctions—for at neither Alexandria nor Georgetown was a single bid made when these shares were offered for sale, though numbers of people had gathered out of interest or curiosity.

A meeting of the board of directors was called at the mouth of the Shenandoah (Harper's Ferry) June 2, 1788, at which it was determined to cut down expenses "without jeopardizing the progress of the work." It was now the opinion of the board that by the ensuing season loaded boats could descend from the pool or "reach" above Seneca Falls to tide-water; this meant that a channel in Seneca Falls