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 This committee submitted a report to the governor, under date of January 15, 1900, stating "That the canals connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie, Ontario and Champlain should not be abandoned, but should be maintained and enlarged." The report contained many maps, documents and tables, and offered convincing arguments. The consideration of the two reports, viz., the Black Commission and the Roosevelt Committee, by the next general assembly resulted in the passage of "an act directing the State Engineer and Surveyor to cause surveys, plans and estimates to be made for improving the Erie canal, the Champlain canal, and the Oswego canal and making an appropriation therefor."

The work thus authorized was carried out and a report, comprising a thousand pages of printed matter and thirty-four plates in atlas form, was submitted to the general assembly the following year.

One of the clearest statements of the conditions which led New York to face the great work of enlarging her canal is con-