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 cents on each share declared in 1802, but had incurred a heavy debt which their resources would never enable them to discharge; that the floods and freshets nevertheless gave the only navigation that was enjoyed; that the whole time when produce and goods could be stream bourne on the Potomac in the course of an entire year, did not exceed forty-five days; that it would be imprudent and inexpedient to give further aid to the Potomac Company." The committee advised a more effectual method of inland navigation and suggested the plan of a canal through the region in which the Potomac Company had proposed to operate, to be connected with Baltimore, the metropolis of the Chesapeake, by means of a lateral canal, from some point along the Potomac Valley.