this route from Montreal to Lake Huron, and through it to Chicago, is very much shorter than (some claiming that it is not more than half as long as) by the Saint Lawrence and lakes, and it was stated that all obstructions to navigation could be overcome by the construction of a series of short canals, the aggregate length of which, including the Lachine and Ottawa Canals, would be 58 miles, and the aggregate lockage 698 feet, or, if dams were used at various points to deepen the waters in certain rapids so as to make them navigable and additional locks constructed, the total length of the canal might be reduced to 293 miles instead of 58, although the lockage would be greater by a little over 10 feet; both plans contemplated at least 10 feet draft.

The cost of the first plan was estimated at $24,000,000, and of the latter at $14,057,680. It was further claimed that by damming the mouth of Lake Nipissing at the head of French River so as to raise the surface of its waters about 23 feet above its natural level it would form a reservoir which would be more than sufficient to insure a constant supply of water on the summit reach. The chief physical obsta cles to carrying out the undertaking were said to be that the cutting on the upper section of the Ottawa and French Rivers would have to be through laurentian and silurian rock.

The mouth of French River forms a safe and commodious harbor. It is also claimed that this route would be open within a fortnight, at the most, as long as the Saint Lawrence.

Of the feasibility of the undertaking I am not able to judge, but the fact that, with all the energy that Canada has shown in the matter of her water communications and the frequency with which the enterprise has been before Parliament, no steps have been taken to put the magnificent project into execution would seem to indicate that the judgment of the majority is against it. Of this project the canal commission say: "The importance of this work to the whole Dominion cannot well, prospectively, be overestimated," but, in view of the wide discrepancy in the estimates, they recommended further examination at as early a day as possible.

Trent River Navigation.-Another projected line is that which comprehends as a part of it the Trent River and Newcastle district naviga. tion, of which I have spoken before, and is intended to shorten the distance by water between Lakes Ontario and Huron. The route, as a whole, and in its various sections, has been repeatedly surveyed and as late as 1880, a new survey of the whole route was authorized.

This survey, which is now in progress, is designed to be very complete and reliable, and to determine definitely the feasibility of constructing the line. The plan has been to improve the Trent River to Rice Lake, secure a navigable channel through a series of connected lakes until the summit level between Lakes Ontario and Huron is reached at Lake Balsam, 589 feet above Lake Ontario, thence descend 118 feet by a canal and the Talbot River to Lake Simcoe, and 1243 feet more by the river Severn to Georgian Bay.

This line would be extremely crooked, but it is claimed would be so much more direct than the established route that 218 miles would be saved between Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, and the Straits of Mackinaw, the point of junction of the three upper lakes.

The improvements which have been made in the navigation of the Trent River, and those which are now being made, are described under the head of "Trent River navigation."

In making them the department of railways and canals say: "Points

have been selected which will enable them to afford the greatest immediate advantage to local navigation, while at the same time they would form an integral part of the best practicable line of through communication."

Toronto and Georgian Bay Canal.-Another scheme, which has had some earnest and sanguine advocates, especially in the province of Ontario, is what is known as the Toronto and Georgian Bay Canal, to connect Hunter Bay, on Lake Ontario, with Georgian Bay, by way of Lake Simcoe, and shorten the distance between Chicago and Toronto. Caughnawaga Canal.-A favorite project, and one which at times has seemed to be on the point of adoption by the authorities, and is now by no means abandoned, is the so-called Caughnawaga Canal, to connect the Saint Lawrence above Montreal with Lake Champlain. This scheme has been investigated and reported upon by many prominent engineers, who have studied it both on behalf of private promoters or under the direction of the Government; all of them, I think, have declared it practicable from an engineering and desirable from a commercial point of view, and most of them have recommended that the route should be run from Caughnawaga, an Indian village just opposite Lachine, on the south side of the Saint Lawrence, to Saint John's, on the Richelieu River, and at the head of the present Chambly Canal.

The cost of the undertaking has been variously estimated at from $1,814,408 to $4,267,890, the former contemplating a navigable depth of 9 feet and the latter of 10 feet, with somewhat larger and more substantial locks.

The year before the canal commission made their report a company had been incorporated, with a capital of $3,000,000, to build this canal. The commission, while heartily approving of the undertaking, say that, in view of the fact that it is in the hands of a private company, with competent powers, they do not feel warranted in recommending any expenditure of the public resources upon it.

The company referred to has never taken any steps to carry out the purpose for which it was organized.

MONTREAL HARBOR-IMPROVEMENTS AND DEEPENING CHANNEL OF SAINT LAWRENCE BELOW MONTREAL.

While a detailed description of the work done under Government supervision on the various navigable rivers and harbors of the Dominion would be beyond the scope of this report, a history of the water communications of the Canadas would be manifestly incomplete if some mention were not made of the improvements which have been undertaken and carried through in the harbor of Montreal and the channel of the Saint Lawrence, between that city and Quebec.

Although in speaking of it generally, Montreal, by reason of its posi tion at the foot of the Lachine rapids, was properly said to be the head of ocean navigation in the Saint Lawrence, yet, in point of fact, until these improvements were commenced, vessels of 400 tons burden were compelled to lighten cargo in order to reach that city from the sea. Such a condition of things was, of course, a serious embarrassment to the ambition of Montreal to become the center of the foreign commerce of Canada, and detracted largely from the value of the Saint Lawrence system as the highway from the northern and western ports of the continent to the sea. The extent to which it operated to discourage foreign trade is indicated by the fact that up to 1825 there were in the

port of Montreal only two small wharves, with a frontage of only 1,120 feet and a depth of only 2 feet of water, and in 1830 the greatest depth of dockage was 5 feet, and the frontage had not greatly increased.

In response to urgent demands for greater facilities the harbor commissioners of Montreal were organized, and the management of all matters connected with the improvements of the harbor confided to them. Before the end of 1832 the wharfage had been increased to an aggregate frontage of 4,950 feet, or nearly a mile, with a depth of water varying from 5 to 20 feet.

In 1841 the Board of Public Works of the United Provinces was authorized to improve and deepen the channel below Montreal, and during the five succeeding years $300,000 was spent for the purpose under their direction.

In 1851 charge of the undertaking was transferred to the harbor commissioners of Montreal, who already had control of the improvements in the harbor proper, and by the latter part of 1853 a channel 150 feet wide and 16 feet deep was obtained.

During the next decade the work was steadily pushed forward, and in 1859 a depth of 18 feet had been reached, and in 1865 a channel 300 feet wide and 20 feet deep was completed.

In 1873 the Dominion Government was authorized to contract a loan of $1,500,000 to defray the expenses of completing the channel to a depth of not less than 22 feet at low water, interest at 5 per cent., and a sinking fund of 1 per cent., to be paid annually by the harbor commissioners of Montreal out of the revenues of that port.

It was determined by the commissioners, after the work was undertaken, to make the depth 25 feet, and a channel of this depth was completed in 1882. Even before the formal opening of this channel it had been determined to increase its depth to 27 feet at the earliest prac ticable date, so that the largest ocean steamers might be enabled to reach Montreal in safety. The General Government has already loaned the harbor commissioners $900,000 at 4 per cent. to carry out this determination, and the work will be vigorously entered upon at the opening of navigation this year.

WHARFAGE FACILITIES AT MONTREAL.

During the period covered by these operations in the river itself the wharfage facilities had been gradually extended to keep pace with the increasing number and size of the vessels coming to this port from the sea, and the rapidly advancing foreign and domestic commerce of the dominion. There is now an unbroken line of wharves extending from Point Saint Charles, above the entrance of the Lachine Canal, to Hochelaga, a distance of 3 miles, with an aggregate frontage of 24,809 feet, or 4.17 miles, 16,458 feet of which have a depth of 25 feet, 2,391 feet a depth of 20 feet, and 5,960 a depth of from 10 to 20 feet.

The earlier wharves were built of piles placed in a close row, and backed with earth and stone filling. From 1846 to 1878 they were built entirely of crib-work, strongly framed of pine and other timber, and filled and backed with stone ballast or the ordinary dredging from the harbor. Since 1878 open pile-work has been used where there was no danger from violent shoving of the ice.

The whole work in the harbor proper has cost about $3,000,000, of which only about half a million has been furnished by the Government, the rest being paid by the harbor commissioners.

The necessity of providing a revenue from which to pay the interest on the loans contracted by the harbor commissioners and the general government, to accomplish these improvements, has compelled the exaction of large harbor dues and tolls. These are heavy taxes upon shipping and a great embarrassment to the carrying trade of Canada.

Efforts have been made from time to time to prevail upon the General Government to treat the deepening of the channel as a public work, and assume the debt already incurred, and carry on future operations, and thus make possible a substantial reduction in the dues.

Municipal and interprovincial jealousies have so far prevented any definite action being taken in this direction, but there is some prospect that the hopes of those who have been active in the matter will be realized, and the improvements of the Saint Lawrence below Montreal be put upon the same footing as those above, and made a public work.

CLOSING REVIEW OF THE CANAL SYSTEMS OF CANADA.

The spirit with which the vast undertaking which has been described was entered upon when Canada was small in population and feeble in financial strength, the unvarying courage and energy with which it has been pushed forward from step to step amid many discouragements and against formidable obstacles, and the magnificent results, looking at them in their physical and political aspects, which have been achieved are apparent from the foregoing narrative.

How far the construction and maintenance of these water-ways, especially the Saint Lawrence route, have operated to build up Canada and increase its foreign and domestic commerce and divert to Canadian channels the carrying trade of the West, in other words, how far the sanguine expectations of the projectors and promotors of these improvements have been realized, is a question not easily answered.

The canal systems of Canada have unquestionably fostered interprovincial trade, have built up local traffic, have bound more closely together the different parts of the province, and in earlier times did much to stimulate immigration and open up the country to settlement and cultivation. The Welland Canal in particular has been and still is the channel of a large and productive trade betweeen the numerous and important lake cities and towns on both sides of the line. But the canals, as they existed in 1871, were amply sufficient for the needs of local and interprovincial trade, and the promoters and advocates of the improvements and enlargements which have been completed since then, and upon which nearly $20,000,000 have been spent, had in view something more ambitious and comprehensive than to provide for this.

The canal commission but echoed the sentiments expressed by the public men of the Canadas as early as the beginning of the century, and iterated and reiterated by the advocates of internal improvements from that time forward, when they say, "It only requires an energetic effort upon the part of the Dominion to make the Saint Lawrence the great highway between the sea and the West, at the very base of the Rocky Mountains."

To secure for Canada all those advantages which the possession of this magnificent natural water-way ought to give it; to make the Saint Lawrence route in its whole length the highway by which the surplus products of the West would seek an outlet to the sea; to put it into a position to compete successfully for the export trade of the continent with the various American lines of communication have been the great objects which these works, particularly the recent enlargements and

improvements on the Saint Lawrence route, were expected to accomplish.

Just so far as these objects have been or shall be obtained, to the extent to which a fair share of the grain transportation of the continent has been or shall be secured by Canada, so far, to that extent, have the hopes of the men who planned and carried out these enlargements and improvements been realized. and the vast expenditure in capital and yearly outlay for repairs and interest which the country has submitted to been justified by the results. Judged by this standard it cannot be said that the outlook is an encouraging one. The export trade of the continent consists, and must always consist to a large extent, in the carriage of grain. The Montreal Corn Exchange, in a recent memorial, says, "A nominal share of the grain trade of the continent is an essential element in the prosperity of all other business exports, inasmuch as without it the tonnage requisite to accommodate cattle, lumber, provisions, and other between-deck cargoes cannot be obtained," and so far this year the grain export trade is absolutely dormant. Vessel after vessel, indeed all the ocean steamers which have left this port since navigation opened this season, have gone without sufficient freight to pay expenses, and there is little prospect of any improvement for the balance of the summer.

As to the cause of this most deplorable and disappointing condition of things there are various opinions among those who have given the matter attention and are most immediately interested.

The view most generally entertained is that the Saint Lawrence route is at present handicapped by heavy charges in the form of ship and canal dues, wharfage dues, port-warden charges and pilotage fees, amounting in the aggregate to an almost prohibitive taxation on carriage by this route from the interior to the seaboard. It is asserted that by reason of these charges grain can be carried from Chicago to New York for a cent or a cent and a half a bushel less than to Montreal, and the Saint Lawrence route is placed at a great disadvantage, especially in comparison with its chief competitor, the Erie Canal, a disadvantage from which it cannot recover until the Government remit the canal tolls on eastern-bound freight and assume the debt for the improvements in the channel below Montreal.

The Montreal Gazette, the leading administration newspaper of this province, says in a recent editorial:

The Government has now to determine whether the canal system is to be allowed to fall into disease until it is finally abandoned as the through carrier, or whether it is to be maintained as a useful competitor of the railways. To make the canals an essential regulator of rail rates, as well as a reasonably successful competitor for the transportation trade, three things are requisite:

The abolition of tolls on all trade except that passing between American ports. The assumption of the Lake Saint Peter debt.

The reduction of charges at the port of Montreal.

Strenuous efforts are being made by the boards of trade of the leading cities along the Saint Lawrence route and by the forwarders and shippers of grain and other produce to induce the Government to adopt a policy of free canals at once as the only way of saving to Canada its foreign commerce and of securing from the canals the benefits that are expected to accrue by their enlargement.

The Corn Exchange of Montreal say:

The Saint Lawrence route has already lost and must continue to lose its normal share of the grain export trade of the continent unless these exceptional and onerous transactions are ameliorated.