It was found to be all the company could do to keep things going on the eastern division of their works; much less carry on the work in the west. In ten years the company spent $367,743 and, in the end, sank about $100,000 more. The greatest expense was in remedying faults and failures. "... hence the expenditures baffled all calculation," frankly writes Watson; "--besides, we were all novices in this department.... Indeed we were so extremely deficient in a knowledge of the science of constructing locks and canals, that we found it expedient to send a committee of respectable mechanics, to examine the imperfect works then constructing on the Potowmac,[14] for the purpose of gaining information--we had no other resource but from books."[15] Wooden locks were built at Little Falls, German Flats, and Rome at large expense, and these rotted in six years. It was wooden locks like these that the New Yorkers had found the Virginians building on the Potomac. The locks at German Flats and at Rome were rebuilt with brick, but the mortar was poor and they fell to pieces. Finally, at all points, the locks were built of stone. This experimenting was extremely expensive work and explains why, for a long time, no dividends could be paid. Up to December, 1804, the company had received $232,000, which was paid on 2,630 shares of capital stock. It had received $25,494 on forfeited shares. The tolls at Little Falls since 1796, when the works there were completed, amounted to $58,346; at Rome, $15,037 had been taken in as tolls. The sum of $12,500 had been received as a gift from the state. Of the total stock the state held $92,000, and the private stockholders, $140,000. In 1798 a dividend of 3 per cent had been declared; in 1813, a dividend of 3-1/2; in 1814, a dividend of 3; 4-1/2 per cent dividend was paid in 1815, 8 per cent in 1816, 3 per cent in 1817, and 5-1/2 per cent in 1818. All receipts from 1798 to 1813 had been absorbed in improvements and repairs.[16] CHAPTER II EARLY PROMOTERS AND THEIR DREAMS