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 on liberal terms to a new company for the prosecution of the new plan of communication. A bill was introduced, in accordance with the same plan in the Maryland legislature, to incorporate a joint stock company to be known as "The Potomac Canal Company." It was estimated that the proposed work of cutting a canal, from Potomac tide-water (Washington, D. C.) up the valley, across the mountains to a branch of the Ohio, and down the same, at a million and a half dollars, of which Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia were each to subscribe one-third."

A commission was appointed by Virginia and Maryland to examine the old route across the Alleghenies marked out by Washington with a view to the possibility of constructing a canal from the head of the Potomac to one of the heads of the Ohio. James Schriver made an examination of the Alleghenies with reference to the new canal in the summer of 1823, and the result was given to the public in the form of a report entitled: An Account of Surveys and Examinations with Remarks and Documents