Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/89

 tion around the cataract. Whether it would be practicable to accommodate all the vessels which the population and opulence of future times will create in those waters, with a passage through so many locks accumulated within a short distance, is a question well worthy of serious consideration. At all events, the demurrage must be frequent, vexatious, and expensive.

When we consider the immense expense which would attend the canal proposed on the Niagara river; a canal requiring so many locks, and passing through such difficult ground; when we view the Oswego river from its outlet at Oswego to its origin in Oneida lake, encumbered with dangerous rapids and falls, and flowing through a country almost impervious to canal operations; and when we contemplate the numerous embarrassments which are combined with the improvement of Wood Creek, we are prepared to believe that the expense of this route will not greatly fall short of the other.

It is, however, alleged that it is not practicable to make this canal; and that if prac-