Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/79

 counter the inconveniences of a portage at the cataract of Niagara, to load and unload at least three times, to brave the tempests of Lake Ontario and the rapids of the St Lawrence. In like manner the voyager to New-Orleans, has a portage between the Chicago and Illinois, an inconvenient navigation in the latter stream, besides the well known obstacles and hazards of the Mississippi. And until the invention of steamboats, an ascending navigation was considered almost impracticable. This inconvenience is, however, still forcibly experienced on that river, as well as on the St Lawrence between Montreal and lake Ontario.

The navigation from lake Erie to Albany, can be completed in ten days with perfect safety on the canal; and from Albany to New-York, there is the best sloop navigation in the world. From Buffalo to Albany, a ton of commodities could be conveyed on the intended canal, for three dollars, and from Albany to New-York, according to the present prices of sloop transportation, for $2.80, and the return cargoes would be the same. We have not sufficient data