In 1885, a project was brought forward in Prussia for the construction of a canal that would join the Rhine, the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe. The length of this waterway was estimated at 181¼ miles, the depth at 6 feet, 8 inches, and the width at 53 feet, 4 inches at the bottom, and 80 feet on the water-line. The canal is intended to accommodate vessels not exceeding 500 tons burden. The outlay proposed for this and collateral canals was estimated at 4,050,000_l_. TRAFFIC ON GERMAN WATERWAYS. The quantity of traffic carried on the waterways of Germany has been calculated at 11,797,000 tons, of which North Germany furnished 11,249,000 tons, and Southern Germany 548,000 tons.[72] This, however, does not include the Rhine and the Main, which would raise the figures for North Germany to about 16½ millions of tons, while other waterways in Southern Germany bring up the traffic in that division of the empire to about three millions of tons, being a total for both divisions of about twenty millions of tons in round figures, or approximately the same traffic as the waterways of France in the same year. Dealing only with those waterways of Germany, in which the transportation of traffic is regularly carried on, and disregarding the streams or canals that are practically unused for this purpose, it appears that the total length of internal navigation in Germany is about 3384 miles,[73] but it is important to remark that about 18 millions of the 20 millions of tons of traffic carried annually on these waterways make use of only 2360 miles, or 69 per cent. of the whole, leaving a million and a half to two millions of tons for the remaining 31 per cent. The latest returns at command appear to show that the waterways of Germany were used by 17,885 sailing ships, of a total tonnage of 1,625,000 tons, or an average of 90 tons each; and by 830 steam ships, of a total tonnage of about 33,000, being an average of 53 tons per vessel. The total number of vessels employed in carrying merchandise, on the waterways of Germany, in the form of tugs, kedges, and steamers, in addition to the above, is given as 483, having an indicated horse-power per boat varying from an average of 280 on the Rhine to one of only 53 on the Oder. It is clear from these returns that the waterways of Germany employ a large number of very small craft. It is equally clear that under these circumstances, the cost of transport cannot be so cheap as it otherwise would be. If the average tonnage of all the vessels employed under steam is only 53 tons, there must be a number of very small craft indeed employed on the other waterways, in order to make up for the considerably larger average of the vessels employed on the Rhine.