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MARINE REVIEW. tt Short History of Lake Navigation. (By C. H. Keep, Secretary Lake Carriers Association.) In the meantime the iron district of Lake Superior having become somewhat developed and the product of copper having increased so rapidly as to force all in interest to agitate the question of greatly enlarged facilities for meeting the necessities of a promised largely increasing traffic to and from Lake Sup- erior, a preliminary survey and estimate for the building of the St. Marys Falls ship canal was undertaken. In this enterprise the Hon. O. D. Conger (afterwards a member of congress and senator from Michigan) took an active part, although we think the that late Mr. John Burt of Michigan was director of the sur- vey... The reports thereof, as submitted, induced the congress of the United States to pass an act donating to the state of Michigan 750,000 acres of the public lands within its borders for the purpose of building a ship canal around the falls, stipu- lating, however, that the canal should not be less than roo feet in width and 12 feet deep, with two locks not less than 250 feet long and 50 feet wide. Mr. Charles T. Harvey, now residing at Nyack, N. Y., having had his attention drawn to the subject, immediately devoted his time and energies to bring the matter into proper form and was largely instrumental in drafting the state law to govern the prosecution of the proposed work. It was at his instigation, though with much hesitation on the part of the then state legislators, that the size of the locks was increased to 350 feet in length and 70 feet in width, with a lift of 18 feet to over- come the difference between the levels of the lower St. Mary's river and the waters of Lake Superior. The proper legislation on the part of the state of Michigan having been secured, Mr. Harvey brought the subject of build- ing the canal prominently to the attention of some of the wealthy men of the country, among whom were the Hon. Eras- tus Corning of Albany, N. Y., then president of the New York Central Railroad Company; Governor Horatio Seymour of Utica, N. Y., and Hon. Joshua Fairbanks of St. Johnsbury, Vt. These men, in connection with others, formed a syndicate and agreed to build the canal and locks complete, and to take in full payment therefor the 750,000 acres of land donated by the gov- ernment. This proposition was accepted on the part of the state of Michigan, and a formal contract was awarded to them. As the constitution of Michigan did not permit a special charter for a construction company, Mr. Harvey's next move was to apply for a charter at the hands of the legislature of New York. In this he succeeded, and under the charter so obtained the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company was organized. 'These pre- liminary arrangements having been perfected, and the company being fully ready for business, and appreciating Mr. Harvey's ability and energy, he was appointed general agent, with full executive powers for prosecuting the work, and on or about June 1, 1853, he landed at Sault Ste. Marie with a force of from 300 to 400 men, and on the 4th of the same month he broke ground and the work was duly commenced. | We should not, however, lose sight of the fact that prior to the commencement of actual work on thecanal, Capt. Augustus Canfield, of the United States engineer corps, had been design- ated on the part of the general government to superintend the work on its behalf, while Col. Glenn of Niles, Mich., a civil engineer, was designated as the resident engineer, on behalf of the state of Michigan (the latter subsequently selected as his assistant Mr. Nichols, who had had more or less experience with canal building by a long supervision of the Erie canal and its branches between Buffalo and Albany, N. Y.,) and the reader may be assured that these gentlemen, with little or no practical information in regard to the construction of a work of such magnitude, encountered many difficulties and serious obstacles in the undertaking. In the winter of 1853 and 1854, the managers of the syndi- cate for building the canal being somewhat discouraged as to the reported progress of the work (which was due in part to the infrequency of the transmission of mails between Sault Ste. Marie and the outside world, the mails being carried between the Soo and Saginaw during the winter at irregular intervals by men on foot), and Mr. Harvey being unable to leave the work as then progressing for the purpose of visiting the managers, Mr. J. T. Whiting, who had become a prominent business man of Sault Ste. Marie, and who had a fair knowledge of the work _ from its early commencement, was asked and undertook, for the benefit of all in interest, to visit and give to the managers of the syndicate a personal statement as to the actual condition and prospective progress of the undertaking. The journey was duly accomplished, although it involved a walk on snow shoes from Sault Ste. Marie to Saginaw, a dis- tance in the neighborhood of 400 miles. The result of the trip proved highly satisfactory and advan- tageous in stimulating the directors of the canal company to have the work pushed with renewed energy from and after the opening of navigation in the following spring, so much so, that all the obstacles and perplexities were conquered in such a man- ner that the canal was completed on the 19th day of April, 1855, but, owing to aleak in the north bank, no boats were passed through until the 18th of June following, when the steamer Illinois, commanded by Capt. Jack Wilson, passed through it bound up, enroute for the then generally used ports of Lake Su- perior. She was followed the same evening by the steamer Baltimore, commanded by Capt, John Reed, bound down for Buffalo. From this date the canal, with its locks, was brought into general use. And just here it may be but right to say that Mr. Sheldon McKnight and the Chippewa Portage Company, prior to the completion of the canal, had placed the following named _ pro- pellers and side-wheel steamers on the route between Cleveland Detroit, Sault Ste. Marie and the various ports on Lake Supe- rior, viz: Monticello, Baltimore, Peninsular, Ben Franklin, London, Albany, and Illinois. The Monticello, Baltimore and Peninsular, having been hauled across the portage as the busi- ness required. Also, that Mr. J. T. Whiting remained connected with Mr. McKnight in the business from the spring of 1848 until 1858, and that he again entered into the Lake Superior carrying trade in 1860 and still continues engaged therein. Though the construction company was organized on a capital of $1,000,000, there is reason to believe that the actual cost of building the canal was something less than $900,000. The canal, under the grant of land for its building by the act of congress, being held in trust, as it were, by the state of Michigan for the benefit of all concerned, was placed in the hands of the state board of control, consisting of the governor, state treasurer, and auditor general, who, by virtue of their authority, appointed Mr. John Burt as the resident engineer and superintendent of same. They also had the power to fix and establish the rate of toll that should be charged on the regis- tered tonnage of all vessels passing through the canal; and this was done, taking effect with the first boat passing through and continuing in force until the state of Michigan ceded all its right, title and interest in the canal back to the government, in the spring of 1881, when the toll system was abolished, and the canal became a free waterway, open to the navigation and com- merce of all who desired to use it. In the meantime, however, in about the year 1861, the north bank of the canal, as well as one of the locks, began te show marked indications of weakness, and after a thorough examina- tion by some of the best civil engineers of the day were found to require the expenditure of what was then considered a large sum of money for repair and preservation; and congress failing to provide therefor the board of control, under a special act of the legislature of Michigan, were authorized to make a loan of $50,000, for which so-called canal bonds were issued, and the accruing tolls of the canal were pledged for the interest and final payment of these obligations. The board of control acted promptly in obtaining the money and making the required repairs on the canal, and with equal promptness increased the rate of tolls thereon to such an extent that the bonds were not only fully retired at maturity, but at time of ceding the canal back to the general government the canal account had a credit.of some $60,000 on the books of the state treasurer, which, with its accrued interest, still remains in possession of the state, though by a subsequent act of the legis- lature, the same has been appropriated to apply on the building of a dry dock in connection with the canal, whenever the United States government may assent thereto, and provide the ad- ditional money for that object. The negotiations attending the transfer of the canal from the state to the general government would doubtless prove an interesting page in its history, but possibly may not be appro- priate to the "Harly Navigation of Lake Superior,' nor does there at this time seem a necessity of incorporating herein any further reference to that grand work, the St. Mary's Fails ship canal, except to say that for the season of 1855 it showed a registered tonnage passing through it of 106,296 tons, while in the season of 1891, consisting of 225 days, the records show a registered tonnage of 8,400,685 tons, with a total net freight tonnage of 8,888,750 tons, including 69,190 net tons copper, 3,-