a third, in 1887, gave the canal a uniform depth of fourteen feet, admitting the passage of vessels with a carrying capacity of 75,000 to 80,000 bushels. When this depth shall prevail throughout the entire system of the St. Lawrence canals, vessels of 1,600 to 1,800 tons register will be able to bring full cargoes from the Upper Lakes to Montreal, and to cross the ocean if their owners see fit.[46] In the meantime the Montreal Board of Trade are memorializing the Government to have the Welland enlarged so that the largest vessels navigating the lakes may be able to tranship their cargoes at Kingston or Prescott as they now do at Buffalo; in other words, to locate the ship canal projected by the Deep Waterways Commission on Canadian territory instead of on the American side of the Niagara River. * * * * * The Rideau Canal, connecting Kingston with Ottawa, was undertaken as a military work by the Imperial Government at the instigation and under the personal superintendence of Colonel John By, of the Royal Engineers, from whom the obsolete Bytown derived its name. A stupendous undertaking it was considered at the time—126¾ miles long, with forty-seven locks, 134 feet by 32 feet each. It was begun in September, 1826, and on the 29th of May, 1832, the works being completed, the steamer _Pumper_ passed through from Bytown to Kingston. The limit of this canal is a draught of five feet. Its cost is said to have been about one million pounds sterling. It was transferred by the Imperial authorities to the Provincial Executive in 1856. [Illustration: CANADIAN SHIP CANAL AT SAULT STE. MARIE, 1895.] The St. Lawrence Canal System, with a uniform depth of nine feet of water, was completed in 1848. The canals are eight in number, viz.: the Lachine Canal, 8½ miles; the Beauharnois, 11¼ miles; the Cornwall, 11½ miles; Farren’s Point, ¾ of a mile; Rapid du Plat, 4 miles; Galops, 7⅝ miles; the Welland, 26¾ miles, and the Sault Ste. Marie, ¾ of a mile—in all 71⅛ miles, with 53 locks, and 551¼ feet lockage. In 1871 the Government decided to enlarge the locks of the whole system to 270 feet by 45 feet, and to deepen the canals to fourteen feet. These dimensions were decided upon after consultation with the Boards of Trade of Oswego, Toledo, Detroit, Milwaukee and Chicago; but so great has been the increase of commerce on the lakes since then, so much larger are the vessels now employed in the trade, and so keen has the competition become in the transportation business, it is already apparent that the limiting of the locks to 270 feet has been a mistake, and that before the work in hand is finished there will be a call for locks of at least double that capacity.