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8 ) MARINE REVIEW. Proposed Ship-Canals in the United States. The Canadians, who have shown more foresight and enter- prise than we on the American side, have now nearly completed their series of enlargements of old canals and new undertakings, including the channel on Canadian soil at Sault Ste. Marie, which will give Canada exclusive control of an uninterrupted water passage 14 feet deep from the head of Lake Superior to deep water at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. This channel will suffice for a large class of lake steamers,and will also be available for small and medium-sized ocean-going freight ships. Our own govern- ment is providing a satisfactory deep water passage from Duluth to Buffalo, but nothing has been done to commit the country to a maritime passage connecting Lake Erie with the deep channel of the Hudson river. A ship-canal along this general course would cost a large amount of money, but it would pay abund- antly for the investment. 'The United States government, which could probably borrow money for such a purpose at 2% per cent., and which through its trained engineers could construct the work without any waste or extravagance, ought in the early future to consider seriously the undertaking. Meanwhile, con- gress would do well to make a thorough inquiry into the cost and advantages of such a ship-canal. In his recent message to the New York legislature, Governor Flower pronounces against the ship-canal on the score of its great cost. But the governor happens to have his whole mind wrapped up in certain improve- ments of a limited sort to the Erie canal as it now exists. His principal hobby is the operation of canal boats by electricity, a trolley wire being stretched along the towpath. The competent critics are of the opinion that Governor Flower is quite too san- guine as tothe results that would follow a substitution of the trolley for the tow-path mule. 'The banks of the canal would not permit a much greater speed than that which is now attained, and the saving of expense would not be material enough to ac- complish revolutionary results. It may easily be believed that the trolley along the Erie canal would be of sufficient advantage to justify its construction and operation; but to dismiss as hope- lessly unfeasible the plan of a deep water channel across New York, and then to fasten one's hopes for the future upon the mere change from one propelling power to another for ordinary canal boats, is to look at the whole subject through the wrong end of the telescope. This country will have fallen behind old Europe in enterprise if it does not adopt the plan of a ship-canal from the great lakes to the sea, make the Hennepin canal con- necting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river a splendid suc- cess, cut the long desired Delaware and Maryland ship-canal, undertake the proposed Florida canal, the advantages of which have been so long recognized, and in short, commit itself unre- servedly to the policy of constructing all great waterways which the demands of commerce show to be needful and feasible.--Re- view of Reviews. Great Ship-Canal Projects in Europe. A writer in the Review of Reviews for February discusses various European ship-canal schemes. 'The Manchester canal, recently completed, is, of course, considered of first importance. The next considerable scheme for adding a great inland city to the list of seaports is the Brussels ship-canal project. Brussels already has asmall channel for ordinary canal boats which makes its way to the sea, and it is proposed to utilize this pass- age, transforming it into a veritable waterway for ocean-going ships. The present plan does not contemplate a depth great enough for vessels of the first rank, but it is estimated that an expenditure of some $10,000,000 would complete the system in such a manner as to give a uniform depth of 22 feet, which would admit vessels of somewhat more than 2,000 tons. 'The Belgian government has already made a subsidy appropriation towards the project, and has offered to take a considerable part of the 4 stock of the canal compand. 3° that the plan may be considered ractically assured basis. = mpm taet Sener known here in America, perhaps, that for some years the most serious engineering investigations have been in progress in the interest of a deep water passage from Paris to the sea. It is to be regretted that Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, who by the way has lived on into the year 1894, had not devoted his talents to the construction of waterways at home rather than to the hopeless Panama project. Marvelous things could have been done for France with the two thousand million francs, more or less, of honest French money that were squan- dered by the Panama company. With the help of the River Seine it is now considered perfectly feasible from the engineer- ing point of view, and also reasonably safe on the financial side, to enter in the early future upon the dredging of a deep water passage from the French capital to the channel coast at Havre. Furthermore, the Paris project of direct navigable commun- ication with the séa is not the only ship-canal scheme that is now in the minds of the French people. A great canal from Bor- deaux on the Atlantic coast across the narrow neck north of the Pyrennes to Narbonne on the Mediterranean coast 1s now a pro- ject definitely entertained. A bill for the construction of this maritime passage was introduced in the French chamber last spring, when it was explained that the waterway would be 325 miles long, that it would vary in width from 120 feet to some 200 feet or more, and that it would have a minimum uniform depth of 27 feet. Large money prizes were offered by the pro- jectors of the enterprise to the French engineers for detailed plans, which were to be submitted by Jan. 1, 1894. It is to be expected that a year or two longer may be required for the per- fection of the preliminaries,-but sooner or later France will un- doubtedly build this canal. A glance at the map of Europe will show its great significance and commercial value. From the strategic point of view, France now labors under the difficulty of ha. ing nowater-course of her own by which her fleet may pass from her Mediterranean to her Atlantic ports. Her ships are bound to pass the bristling fortress of Gibralter, and in case ot a war with England this would result in great embarrassment. Moreover, French coasting trade 1s now compelled to make the enormous detour around the whole of the Spanish peninsula in passing from ths Mediterranean to the Atlantic seaboard. The vast British commerce with India, Australia and the Orient in general that now passes through the Straits of Gibralter on the way to and from the Suez canal would save much time and much expense in patronizing the Bordeaux-Narbonne channel. An improvement so advantageous to France from every point of © view is not likely to be long neglected, especially in view of the present military situation on the continent. It may easily be imagined that the clear-headed Frenchman who thinks of the money wasted on Panama, a part of which would have sufficed to give France this magnificent commercial and strategic pahs- age from the Mediterranean tothe Atlantic, feels his blood boil with indignation and wrath. Stocks of Grain at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the Chicago board of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store at the principal points of accumulation on the lakes on Feb. 3, 1894: Wheat, bu. Corn, bu. CINCH OMe tate. fess 20,720,000 4,418,000 JOEUISU AO) icc sno aconeno dann cancion, WOKS; 0v0-0) 128,000 Wilwawkeess. so 8 tect ender: B7N OOO: 8: Sc scasina es BONG ee cnc nein atGsaa cs 1,644,000 19,000 Maledon ster am 2,817,000 1,152,000 UME On eet cers ccc: 2,237,000 595,000 Motalen ae Rak 38,386,000 6,312,000 At the points named there is a net increase for the week of 216,000 bushels of wheat and 676,000 bushels of corn. Since the REviEw distributed on the lakes, a few weeks ago, the books containing proceedings of the marine and naval branch of the engineering congress, held in Chicago in August last, we have received orders for extra copies of the work from Frank E. Kirby of the Detroit Dry Dock Company, President Goodrich of the Goodrich Transportation Company and other leading builders and owners. Past Assistant Engineer McFar- land, U.S. Navy, who undertook, without renumeration of any kind, the great labor of preparing for publication the proceedings of this branch of the congress, 1s receiving many compliments in the newspapers oi Great Britain upon the success of the work.