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M A RO ye NS Loe ere -------- joint letter addressed to the agent stating that they were more than satisfied with his administration of affairs, but they had become convinced that they were imposing more duties upon him than any individual could be expected to perform, and they had selected an experienced contractor by the name of Ward to act as superintendent of construction, who accom- panied them and remained to assume such duties. But the cholera arrived soon after, and he being indiscreet despite the agent's cautions, fell an early victim, and the latter was again in sole charge. : The colonel had planned to make his mark in building the coffer dam at the west end of the canal to restrain Lake Superior while full depth in the prism was being excavated. Its site was prepared early in the year with the understand- ing that he was to have sole charge of its installation, and his corps of assistants were detailed to assist in its progress. R E, V ] E W 21 solve the problem, but declined to act while it was in their control; they therefore requested the board to induce him to assume charge of it and they would hope for his success. The board immediately acted on the suggestion and in a private session found him quite willing to undertake the case when duly assigned to him. An official order to that effect was passed and he was then asked how long it would require to make it ready. He replied about one week and at an ex- pense of but a few hundred dollars. As the government engineer had been engaged upon it for many months, invclv- ing an expense estimated at about $50,000, these predictions seemed quite incredible, but the intensely interested directors decided to remain for that time and watch the new methods. The agent immediately caused the frame of the dam to be repaired and refilled as before,--then having bought the spare mainsails of several large vessels then unloading stone for the THE GREAT POE LOCK, 1896. Before it was completed the colonel died in Detroit, but his assistants continued the work. Special material was hauled from a long distance to render it waterproof and no expense spared to perfect the plan. Work on the canal progressed until its use became necessary. 'Then it was tested but failed to stand the ultimate pressure and collapsed. It was repaired under direction of Major Glenn, the colonel's first assistant, but again on-trial it was wrecked. For the third time the same result occurred and a fearful disaster in having Lake Superior pour through the unfinished canal and locks was barely averted. The situation was becoming critical by delay of the work late in the season. The directors became alarmed and the president called on them to meet him at the Sault. A conference with the government engineers was held when the latter said that in pursuance of previous agreement they had been in exclusive charge of the datn but were ready to confess that it was beyond their ability to make it equal to the trial tests, the difficulty being that the water under pres- sure forced channels under the uneven base and lifted the frame. They had heard that the agent had remarked that he could ' locks he had the same nailed on the top of the dam and their breadth carried up stream and weighted down in place by a few scow loads of gravel. Within three days full pressure was applied, but the dam remained firm and tight as a bottle. Work was then resumed with the agent in sole charge as chief: engineer, with the government engineer corps most cordial approval. The directors departed feeling well repaid for their time and attention at the scene of operations. The colonel's official surveys were found to contain two serious errors: one' was that he had established the depth of the canal to be 12 ft., as the law required, when the water of Lake Superior was a foot higher than usual, and subsequent observations proved that it would when opened only afford 11 ft. of vessel clearance. 'This discovery was made during the season of 1854 and, although the contractors might legally claim that the official data must be their acquaintance, the directors decided to have the intended depth actually realized, and accordingly the bottom from the locks to the lake was lowered 12 in. at great extra cost, as two-thirds of the distance was rock and the use of hand instead of power drills was required in the tedious scraping off of the 12 in. in depth over about