The Middlesex canal,[31] in Massachusetts, runs over twenty-eight miles of ground, presenting obstacles much greater than can be expected on the route we purpose. This canal cost 478,000 dollars, which is about 17,000 dollars a mile. It contains 22 locks of solid masonry and excellent workmanship and to accomplish this work, it was necessary to dig in some places to the depth of 20 feet, to cut through ledges of rocks, to fill some vallies and morasses, and to throw several aqueducts across the intervening rivers. One of these across the river Shawshine is 280 feet long, and 22 feet above the river. From the Tonewanta creek to the Seneca river, is a fall of 195 feet From thence to the Rome summit, is a rise of 50 " From thence to the Hudson river, is a fall of 380 " --- The whole rise and fall 625 feet This will require 62 locks of ten feet lift each. The expense of such locks as experimentally proved in several instances in this state would be about 620,000 dollars. We have seen that on the Middlesex canal, there are 22 locks for 28 miles, which is a lock for somewhat less than every mile, whereas, 62 locks for 300 miles is but about one lock for every five miles; and the lockage of the Middlesex canal, would alone cost 220,000 dollars. It would, therefore, appear to be an allowance perhaps too liberal, to consider the cost of it as a fair criterion of the expense of canals in general in this country, and of this in particular. Reservoirs and tunnels, are the most expensive part of the operation, and none will be necessary in our whole route. The expense of the whole earth work of excavating a mile of canal on level ground fifty feet wide and five feet deep, at 18 cents per cubic yard, and allowing for the cost of forming and trimming the banks, puddling, etc. will not exceed 4000 dollars per mile, and the only considerable aqueduct on the whole line, will be over the Genesee river. From a deliberate consideration of these different estimates and actual expenditures, we are fully persuaded that this great work will not cost more than 20,000 dollars a mile, or six millions of dollars in the whole; but willing to make every possible allowance; and even conceding that it will cost double that sum, yet still we contend that there is nothing which ought to retard its execution. The canal cannot be made in a short time. It will be the work perhaps of 10 or 15 years.