Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/94

 canal for ships drawing eight feet of water, with an extraordinary rise for its length, and having more than one lock for every mile.

The following will give an idea of the money expended on such works in England:—

The miles of canal are 385½, and the cost is £2,411,900 sterling, or about 28,000 dollars per mile.

But in the estimation of the cost of these canals, unquestionably the price of the land over which they pass is included, and this is enormous. The land alone for one canal of 16 miles, is said to have cost £90,000 sterling. With us this would be but small. If we look at the history of the English canals, we shall see how many objects of great expense are connected with them, with which we should have nothing to do, and that most of them have encoun-