Several meetings of this International Waterways Commission have been held, a good deal of money has been spent in preliminary surveys, and reports favourable to the proposal, embodying much exceedingly interesting information as to the amount and rapid growth of the commerce of the lakes, have been submitted to the respective Governments. The American Commissioners favour the construction of a series of ship canals connecting Lake Erie with the seaboard, suggesting that the minimum depth of navigable water should be 28 feet, with canal locks 560 feet long and 64 feet wide. They present a choice of routes: (1) “The natural route” _via_ the St. Lawrence to Montreal, and _via_ Lake Champlain to the Hudson River. (2) _Via_ Lake Ontario to Oswego and thence through the Mohawk Valley to Troy on the Hudson. The latter would be entirely through United States territory; the former would necessarily be of an international character, and preferable, provided that satisfactory treaty arrangements could be effected for the settlement of any differences that might arise between the two Governments interested. In either case the construction of a ship canal at Niagara Falls on the American side of the river is judged to be necessary. The international route would involve a ship canal from some point below Ogdensburg to near the boundary line on Lake St. Francis, and thence through Canadian territory to Lake Champlain. The Canadian Commissioners in general terms endorse the international proposal as the one “which would give an opportunity of doing what our canals were intended to do, but have failed to do, that is, to obtain the maximum amount of the western trade for the St. Lawrence route.” It is agreed that the class of vessels adapted to the Welland and St. Lawrence canals, limited to a draft of fourteen feet, can never compete successfully with the large United States vessels plying on the Upper Lakes; and the fact that these large United States vessels are unable to leave the Upper Lakes, “seems to embrace the whole ‘Deep Waterways’ question in a nutshell.”[60] Regarding Montreal as a seaport and the natural outlet for the commerce of the West, it is conceded that its harbour accommodation must be largely increased, that it should be furnished with the best known appliances for the storage and shipment of grain, and that the navigable channel to Quebec be deepened to at least thirty feet and the Welland Canal to at least twenty feet. The project of enlarged ship canals to connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean is a magnificent one. Its advantages have been skilfully set forth. There are no insurmountable engineering difficulties in the way of its accomplishment, but it is still in nubibus. Apart from the complications necessarily attending an international work of this magnitude, it is not likely that it will be entered upon until the results to commerce of the enlargement of existing canals in both countries have been fairly tested.