Parliamentary Papers

Canal Communi.

Correspondence Nó. 23.-EXTRACT of a Report to His Grace the Duke of Wellington relative relative to the to the BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN PROVINCES; by a Commission, of which cation in Canada. Major-Gen. Sir James Carmichael Smyth was President. Dated 9th Sept. 1825.

THE RIDEAU CANAL.

THE mouth of the Rideau falls over a precipice thirty feet high into the Ottawa, forming a very beautiful and regular cascade, not unlike a curtain, from whence it has derived its name. This fall may, however, be easily turned, and the mouth of the proposed Canal be made to enter by a small bay a few hundred yards lower down the Ottawa than the mouth of the Rideau.

There appears to be no difficulty whatever with respect to a Canal from the Ottawa to Kingston, by the Rideau River, the Rideau Lake, the Mud Lake, Cranberry Marsh, and Kingston Mill Stream. The whole extent of the communication would be 132 miles. The line has been carefully surveyed, and estimates of the expense have been formed by order of the Provincial Government. The other line mentioned in your Grace's instructions by Kyles Bridge and the Irish Creek, although somewhat shorter, could not be undertaken for want of water.

Three different estimates have been formed for the proposed Canal, varying according to the dimensions that may be adopted. That which amounts to £. 145,000, corresponds, as to the size of the Canal, with those of Grenville and La Chine, and of course would be the one to be selected. The locks are, however, only estimated at fifteen feet broad by eighty feet in length. The length does not so much signify; but it is indispensable that they should have the same breadth, (namely, twenty feet) as the Grenville and La Chine locks. It would be better, indeed, that they should agree exactly: this, of course, would cause an additional expense. We have estimated that £. 24,000 would cover this alteration; making a total for the Water Communication between Kingston and the Ottawa, of £. 169,000.

In compliance with your Grace's commands, we have endeavoured to ascertain what assistance, if any, could be procured from the Provincial Government towards carrying on this important work, whether viewed in a military or a political point of view, into effect. We regret, however, to say, that there does not appear to be the slightest chance of any pecuniary aid from the Province. The settlers are very poor, and the Province of Upper Canada is yet in its infancy. The Province of Lower Canada is much wealthier, and was able to undertake the La Chine Canal, the profits of which were evident, and will amply repay in time both capital and interest. The profits upon the Rideau Canal are more remote, and the Province is not able to advance such a sum of money.

It has occurred to us, that the only possible mode of having the Canal executed will be, for the British Government to undertake it, and to complete the whole of the Water Communication from the St. Ann's Rapids, near Montreal, to Kingston, by the Ottawa and the Rideau, upon the same scale as already has been commenced upon at Grenville. In addition to the £. 60,000 already allotted for that part at Grenville, there would be required the £. 169,000 wanted for the Rideau, and the £. 50,000 which at any rate must be advanced to get the better of the Carillon, Chûte à Blondeau, and the St. Ann's Rapids, before any benefit can be derived from the money now expending at Grenville. The whole of this Water Communication would thus cost £.279,000; but as it would be entirely in the hands of Government, the tolls would of course be collected on account of the Treasury; and in proportion to the rising prosperity and increasing commerce of the Province, the money advanced might be expected to be repaid. Excepting it is undertaken by His Majesty's Government, we are afraid it will never be executed. Companies are forming; and cheap and temporary expedients are likely to be resorted to for improving the navigation of the St. Lawrence, in order to enable the produce from Lake Ontario to be forwarded to Montreal and Quebec with less trouble and risk than at present. The important advantages of such a communication in the rear of the frontier, are not likely to be appreciated by the bulk of the inhabitants of the Province; nor is it probable, that for the attainment of a remote good, they will agree to any tax or immediate pecuniary loss.

Correspondence relative to the Canal Communication in Canada.

No. 24.-EXTRACT of a REPORT of the Joint Committee appointed to report on the proposed WATER COMMUNICATION in Canada.

THE Joint Committee appointed to confer upon the improvement of the internal navigation of this Province have had before them the several Reports of the Commissioners appointed under the Provincial Statute 2 Geo IV. c. 2, which they have read with great interest; and especially the third or last Report, accompanied with an able and very judicious letter, addressed by Mr. M'Auley, the President, to Mr. Gordon, one of the Members of the Board, and submitted by the latter to the Committee.

All these papers are subjoined to this Report in an appendix, and the Committee have much satisfaction in calling attention to them, as to documents which are in their opinion highly creditable to the zeal and intelligence of the Commissioners.

With respect to the Estimates in detail, however important it is to ascertain their accuracy, it can scarcely be expected that the Committee can of their own knowledge either verify or discredit them, or in fact that they can do any thing more than express their judgment as to the degree of confidence they appear entitled to from the means which were employed in procuring them.

On this point the Committee are happy to believe there is no ground to discourage a reliance on their general accuracy. On the contrary Mr. Clowes, after the experience the Commissioners have had of him, appears to possess fully their good opinion of his professional knowledge and of his respectable character; and the Committee find no reason to apprehend that the result of his surveys would not be found generally correct, except that as in all similar undertakings of great extent there is a chance that obstacles might present themselves in the progress of the work, which it is not always possible to discover or foresee.

The probability of some obstacles occurring which would enhance the cost, is perhaps too great to admit of its being safely kept out of view in any case; but as this is purely a contingency, and no calculation can possibly be made to meet it, the estimates must necessarily be assumed to be in the main correct, in the absence of any known reason for suspecting their accuracy.

To these Reports the Committee therefore refer, as containing the best, and in truth the only satisfactory information it is in their power to present, as to the means of improving the internal navigation of this province; and indeed in the observations contained in the Reports, so comprehensive a view is taken of the subject, and the public interests involved in it are discussed with so much candour and judgment, that the Committee would unwillingly bespeak attention to any attempt of their's to reason minutely upon the same points with less advantage of leisure and far less opportunities of knowledge.

After examining these Estimates and Reports, the considerations remaining to be weighed are, the probable influence of the projected improvements upon our security and welfare, the scale on which they should be attempted, the expense at which they can be accomplished, and the means of meeting that expense, the time at which they may and ought to be undertaken, and in what order.

Upon all these points the Commissioners have offered very valuable remarks, and the Committee may, without any censurable failure in their duty, forbear much additional observation of their own, upon points upon which great diversity of opinion will undoubtedly prevail, however much they may be discussed, because they involve considerations so various in their nature, and so combined a view must be taken of the several questions, that it would be vain to pretend to demonstrate satisfactorily the precise conclusion to which the suggestions of the Commissioners ought, under all circumstances, to lead.

That a Canal from Kingston to the Ottawa River, would in the event of a war, not merely diminish beyond measure the charge of our defence, but render its success greatly more certain, admits of no doubt. Happily present appearances indicate no interruption of the good understanding between Great Britain and America; on the contrary they afford a well grounded hope of its permanence, but without bringing probabilities into discussion, it may be affirmed that it would be most imprudent to reckon securely on a very long continuance of peace.

Canal Communi

In the event of a war protracted as the last, the safety and the saving of transport Correspondence conducted by such a channel, would, it is believed, fully compensate to the nation relative to the the charge of the improvement; and it is most evident, that to give full effect to cation in Canada. the sound and liberal policy which has created the military settlements on the Rideau, and introduced, since the war, a loyal population of more than 10,000 souls where there was before no inhabitant, and which is now surmounting, at a considerable expense, the interruption of the navigation of the Ottawa, it is necessary, to perfect the Water Communication, removed from the enemy's frontier, and leading, in truth, from the ocean to Kingston, which is the key to Lake Ontario and the principal military station in the province.

With respect to the Canal from Kingston to the Ottawa, it remains an important and somewhat difficult question. The comparative expense is on a scale of 7 feet in depth, 40 feet in width at the bottom, and 61 feet in width at the surface of the water, the banks to slope 1 foot to 1 foot perpendicular; the locks to be of stone, and 100 feet in length by 22 feet in width, with turning bridges, with 22 feet in the clear, and 10 feet wide: cost, £. 230,785. 14. 11.

On a scale of 5 feet in depth, 28 feet in width at the bottom, and 48 feet in width at the surface of the water; the banks to slope 2 feet to 1 foot perpendicular; the locks to be of stone, and 80 feet in length by 15 in width, with turning bridges, feet in the clear, and 10 feet wide: cost, £.145,802. 7. 8.

On a scale of 4 feet in depth, 20 feet in width at the bottom and 32 feet in width at the surface of the water, the banks to slope 1 feet to 1 foot perpendicular; the locks to be of wood, and 75 feet in length by 10 feet in breadth, with turning bridges, 10 feet in the clear, and 10 feet wide: cost, £.62,258. 8. 10.

A Canal larger than is necessary to transport with convenience all descriptions of naval and military stores, would, by its greater dimensions, afford, in the opinion of the Committee, no additional security to the Province.

Judging thus, they are inclined to prefer the Plan second in order, being of a Canal five feet in depth.

(signed)

J. Strachan,

No. 24. (a.)-REPORT and ESTIMATE of the COMMISSIONERS appointed under the Act for the Improvement of the Internal Navigation of Canada.

To His Excellency Sir Percgrine Maitland, Knight Commander of the
Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, Lieutenant Governor
of the Province of Upper Canada, Major General commanding His
Majesty's Forces therein, &c. &c. &c.

The Commissioners appointed by Your Excellency in conformity to the pro-
visions of an Act passed in the second year of His Majesty's reign, intituled,
"An Act to make Provision for the Improvement of the Internal Naviga-
"tion of this Province,"

Most respectfully Report,

THAT in prosecution of the plans stated in the first Report, submitted at the late Session of the Legislature, the Commissioners this season applied their attention to the route from Lake Ontario by the interior lakes and streams of the River Ottawa; and because no positive direction could be assigned to this survey without more general knowledge of the interior than was at that time in their possession, they found it necessary that the engineer should traverse the country from Kingston to the confluence of the Rideau and Ottawa Rivers, and personally acquire the requisite information respecting its leading features. D 2

Mr. Clowes,

Correspondence relative to the Canal Communication in Canada.

Mr. Clowes, the engineer, accompanied by one of the Commissioners and by Mr. Sherwood, the land surveyor, who acted as guide on the occasion, embarked in canoes early in the spring, and proceeded from Kingston up the grand River Cataraquay, and through Cranberry Lake, to the Gananoque River, which are all connected by means of dams erected at the White Fish falls in the township of South Crosby, and at the round tail in Pittsburgh. The exploring party then passed up Jones' falls or rapids, and following up the White Fish branch of the Gananoque through several small lakes, to the carrying place from Mud into Rideau Lake, transported their canoes and baggage from the lower end of the latter into the River Mississippi by the main road leading from Perth to Lanark; from thence they descended to the Ottawa, and returned to Kingston by the Rideau river, Irish creek, and the Gananoque.

The Commissioners had been led to suppose that the Mississippi would afford great facilities for their proposed survey; it is in truth a fine and copious stream taking its rise somewhere in the neighbourhood of Crow River, one of the tributary streams of the Trent, and running in a northerly direction a course of about two hundred miles; on observing, however, its numerous rapids and cascades, as well as the falls at the Chats and Chaudières on the Ottawa, it was evident that the bed of the Mississippi was far too elevated, and that as the lockage to attain and descend 'from the summit pond would be enormously expensive, no Canal would be practicable in that direction.

The Rideau River seemed to oppose fewer obstacles, and it also presented a shorter course from Kingston to the still water of the Ottawa below the Chaudières Falls; the examination of the Petit Nation River, which was more distant and less promising, though also in contemplation, was postponed until the localities of the Rideau had been fully explored.

The engineer was therefore instructed to commence his surveys near Kingston, and to gain the Rideau (if possible, below the lake of that name) by the most direct line, and the lowest summit he might discover. It was at the same time suggested that he would probably meet with the lowest summit at a place in the township of Kitley, called Plum Hollow, where the waters of the Rideau and Gananoque very closely approach each other.

With these general views for his guidance, the engineer begun to explore the level on the 12th day of June. and continued incessantly engaged with it until the 15th day of November, when the severity of the weather and the necessity of reporting on the progress of the survey, put a period to his operation. The result, so far as there was time to proceed this season, is detailed in the following statement furnished by the engineer, and will be further elucidated by the accompanying Maps and Plans.

ESTIMATE, in so far as the Survey has been completed, for a CANAL intended to connect LAKE ONTARIO with the OTTAWA River, of the following Dimensions; viz. seven feet in depth, forty feet in width at the bottom, and sixty-one feet in width at the surface of the water; the banks to slope one foot and a half to one foot perpendicular; the locks to be one hundred feet in length by twenty-two feet in width, with turning bridges twenty-two feet in the clear, and ten feet wide.

ESTIMATE for Canal-continued.

Third mile commences with Lock, No. 1. of 4 feet lift (being a guard-lock) situated on a small island at the edge of the river, allowing a depth of 8 feet water at the lowest ebb, the 4 feet lift guards the Canal against a fluctuation of 4 feet in Lake Ontario, giving 3 feet cutting through black mud lying upon a strong blue clay, a distance of 42 chains across the marsh, thence, 38 chains up a small ravine composed of soil and clay, excellent for a Canal. In the last distance of 38 chains, there is a rise of 15 feet 13 decimals, and it contains Lock, No. 2, of 7 feet lift and Lock, No. 3 of 8 feet lift, bottom level of the Canal 15 feet; this mile crossing the main road from Kingston to Montreal, it will be necessary to have a turning Bridge.

Fourth mile is composed of a light soil upon a strong clay; near the commencement of this mile stands Lock, No. 4, an 8 feet lift, bottom level 23 feet; in this mile a great quantity of extra cutting is unavoidable. The River Cataraquay above the mills lying 28 feet 28 decimals higher than Kingston Bay, prevents our placing another Lock here, and it will therefore be necessary to have an extra waste weir 60 feet wide at the end of 1722 yards, to let off the surplus water to Kingston Mills.