and New England States will be great enough by the time the project in the international section is completed to absorb the entire output.

The development of power of this section with an additional expenditure from $22,000,000 to $34,000,000, depending upon the details as to whether it is a two-stage or single stage, for locks and canals would carry the shipway 141 miles out of the total 183 miles from Lake Ontario to Montreal, or within 42 miles of tidewater. There are two plans, first, by building a shipway around the rapids completely independent of any future power development, and second, by making use of a partial development in order to offset future costs to the complete development of power.

The first method will cost about $97,500,000, while the second would cost about $161,000,000. The second method is recommended by the Joint Board of Engineers.

9. It is possible that other agencies than the governments themselves will be given the right to develop the power. However, the undertaking is of such a nature that the power development and navigation project will probably be carried out as a joint one between the United States and Canada.

The method as to how the costs shall be shared by the two countries has not been determined.

10. Comparison costs of maintenance with interest at 42 per cent of the three routes are:

The St. Lawrence route is nearer northern European ports by 625 miles than would be the Lake OntarioHudson route; but it is 1,550 miles

further to New York and from 450 to

1,350 miles further to South Atlantic ports. These distances, however, are compensated for by better navigation in the St. Lawrence route.

12. The time required for construction has been estimated to be eight years, but it may be assumed that ten years will be the minimum period even though all international questions, legislation, administrative and financial problems can be rapidly overcome.

13. It is hardly necessary to discuss the military advantages of one route over the other, but they may be summed up in the words of the Chief of Engineers: "The military advantages of the proposed waterway across the State of New York are not sufficiently. great enough to affect the consideration of a matter involving hundreds of millions of dollars. It will be noted that many points of both routes are so close to the border as to make them subject to possible destruction in case of war.

14. It is noted that the State of New York has a special interest in the development of power on the St. Lawrence route, but owing to the international character of the river, it will be necessary that the Federal Government assent to and negotiate power development questions from the American side.

15. It is feared by some eastern seaboard cities that in case the St. Lawrence route is constructed that they will lose some transfer and shipping business.

It may be stated that the total estimated tonnage for this route equals only 4 per cent of the present tonnage carried by the American Railway systems which now connect the Lakes with the Altantic Seaboard. It is equal to only 12 per cent of the shipments now moving through American sea ports. It is theoretically possible that the natural increase in traffic during the years of construction will increase to enough to completely offset any decrease that may come to American seaboard ports.

The conclusions of the Commission

are:

1. The construction of the shipway from the Great Lakes to the sea is imperative.

2. The shipway should be constructed on the St. Lawrence route, provided suitable agreement can be made for its joint undertaking with the

Dominion of Canada.

3. That the development of the power resources of the St. Lawrence should be undertaken by appropriate agencies.

4. That negotiations should be entered into with Canada in an endeavor to arrive in agreement upon all these subjects.

water transportation route from the Great Lakes to the sea. Its engineering aspects deal primarily with the best means for creating such a highway for deep-draft shipping. But this is only part of the problem. The portion of the St. Lawrence that now remains a bar to such shipping has potential power resources whose eventual development will be an economic asset of far-reaching importance to the two nations concerned. The engineering problem is then to find the best means of co-ordinating improvement of the river for through deep-draft navigation with the immediate or ultimate development of its power resources.

From the point where it leaves Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence lies along the boundary between the United States and Canada for a distance of 115 miles, with the Province of Ontario on the north and the State of New York on the south. The river then leaves the boundary and flows through the Province of Quebec to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The port of Montreal lies 180 miles downstream from Lake Ontario.

From Montreal to the sea, the Dominion of Canada has already provided a channel thirty feet in depth at low water, which has made that city one of the great ports of the continent. A project is under way to enlarge this channel to a depth of 35 feet. The part of the river which bars Lake navigation from the sea, and ocean navigation from Lake Ontario, is therefore the 180-mile reach from that lake to

Montreal. In this reach the river falls a total of some 225 feet over three successive series of rapids, lying between long stretches of deep, slow flowing water and expansions of the river course into lake reaches.

It is to be anticipated that hydroelectric generating machinery with a total installed capacity of some 5,000,000 horsepower will eventually develop the power economically utilizable from the large and uniform river flow through this section. More than half of this potential power lies on the portion of the river within the Province of Quebec.

The Great Lakes are of necessity an integral part of the waterway system of which the St. Lawrence Waterway would form a part. Each of the lakes has, it is needless to say, a depth adequate for vessels of any practicable draft, and the Straits of Mackinac, between lakes Michigan and Huron, also have ample depth for any navigation. The rivers connecting the other lakes are the limiting factor in determining the depth available for shipping on the lake system.

IMPROVEMENT OF INTERCONNECTING CHANNELS

The interconnecting Channels from Lake Superior through Lake Huron into Lake Erie have been improved by the United States Government by channel excavation, and by the construction of four parallel locks at St. Mary's Falls, at the outlet of Lake Superior, to afford a transportation route normally available for vessels of 20-foot draft. Canada has contrib

uted a fifth lock at the St. Mary's Falls. The recent low water levels on the lakes, due to a cycle of low precipitation on their drainage basin, and to the diversion of water from Lake Michigan by the Chicago sanitary district, reduced the available draft at one time to as little as 18 feet. The draft that can be carried at the present time is about 19 feet. A report on the advisability and cost of a further improvement of the interlake channels has been directed by Congress and is in preparation.

The transportation route afforded by the channels between the lakes has given rise to a water commerce of great volume, moving upward of 100,000,000 tons of commerce per annum. Most of this commerce consists of bulk cargoes of iron ore, coal and grain, carried in a special type of vessel, longer and of greater capacity than the ordinary ocean cargo carrier, but of lighter draft to meet the limitations of the channel depth. With the loading and unloading machinery provided at the lake ports, the transportation of bulk freight has reached an unparalleled standard of efficiency.

Lake Ontario lies at an elevation 326 feet below Lake Erie. Navigation from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario passes through the Welland Canal, constructed and operated by the Dominion of Canada. The present Welland Canal affords a depth of 14 feet and overcomes the difference between the levels of the lakes by a series of 25 lift locks. Canada has now under construction a new Welland Ship Canal, generally paralleling the present canal. It is 25 miles in length, with but seven lift locks and a guard lock. The lock sills are set to afford a depth of 30 feet. The portions of the canal first excavated were given a depth of 25 feet; the later contracts provide for a depth of 27 feet. From Lake Ontario to Montreal 14

foot navigation is now provided by side canals around the rapids in the St. Lawrence and by such channel excavation in the river as has been necessary for this draft.

The present Welland and St. Lawrence Canals form the connecting link, via Lake Ontario, between the general lake system of navigation and deep water at Montreal. This route is navigated by vessels of 14-foot draft, similar in design to the lake freighters, but of much smaller dimensions. They are relatively high-powered to meet the swifter currents of the St. Lawrence. The commerce via this route has been increasing rapidly in recent years, and is now somewhat in excess of 6,000,000 tons per annum.

In summary, navigation on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence now falls into three categories:

(a) Lake navigation, operating normally on 20-foot draft, on and between all the Lakes except Ontario.

(b) Canal navigation, 14-foot draft, between Lake Erie ports and Montreal via the Welland Canal, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence.

(c) Deep-sea navigation from Montreal to the ocean.

When the new Welland Ship Canal is opened, lake navigation will be extended to Lake Ontario, and will then be separated from deep-sea navigation only by the 180 odd miles of the St. Lawrence above Montreal. But if the St. Lawrence gateway was then opened, vessels exceeding 20 feet in draft would not be able to penetrate into the lakes beyond Lake Erie until the interlake channels are deepened.

IMPROVEMENT OF THE ST. LAWRENCE BETWEEN LAKE ONTARIO AND MONTREAL

Since it is in part a boundary stream, the improvement of the upper St. Lawrence is an international project.

Plans for the improvement of the river between Lake Ontario and Montreal were prepared in 1921 by a board composed of one engineer for the United States, and one for Canada. These plans were presented to the International Joint Commission, a permanent body created by treaty to deal with matters relating to the boundary waters between the two countries. The Joint Commission recommended that the two governments enter into a treaty arranging for the improvement of the river between Lake Ontario and Montreal. As it had received certain alternative plans for improving the international portion of the river for navigation and power, it further recommended that all plans presented be reviewed by an enlarged engineering board. In 1924 the two governments appointed such a board, known as the Joint Board of Engineers on the St. Lawrence Waterway.

THE JOINT BOARD OF ENGINEERS

The membership of the board was, for the United States, Major General Edgar Jadwin, Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, Col. William Kelly, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army and the writer; for Canada, Mr. Duncan W. McLachlan, of the Department of Railways and Canals, Dominion of Canada, Mr. Oliver O. Lefebvre, Chief Engineer, Quebec Streams Commission, and Brig. Gen. Charles Hamilton Mitchell, C.B., C.M.G., Dean of the College of Engineering of the University of Toronto. The report of this board was submitted on November 16, 1926, and appendices to the report, containing detailed discussions, plans and estimates, were filed in July, 1927. Under the instructions formulated by the two governments the report of the board included findings on certain collateral questions, such as the effect of diversions of water from the Great

Lakes on the levels of the lakes and of the St. Lawrence. There will here be considered only that part of the report which deals with the St. Lawrence itself.

REPORT OF THE BOARD

The St. Lawrence leaves Lake Ontario as a deep, slow-flowing stream, split in places into many channels by the Thousand Islands and other island groups. At a distance of 67 miles from the lake the first rapids are met, and rapids and swift water continue through the remaining 48 miles of the international border. The most spectacular of these rapids are the Long Sault, near the foot of the reach. Leaving the border, the river expands into the quiet water of Lake St. Francis, which extends for about 27 miles. The river then drops through a succession of rapids, 15 miles in length, to Lake St. Louis. Lake St. Louis is 15 miles in length. From the lake the river passes in a turbulent course some 10 miles to Montreal Harbor. The famous Lachine Rapids lie in this last section.

The enormous reservoir of the Great Lakes equalizes the flow of the St. Lawrence and gives it an unparalleled uniformity of discharge. The river has no floods and no low water. Except where winter ice jams back up its levels, the range between high and low water marks is but a few feet. The minimum recorded monthly mean flow of 174,200 cubic feet per second in the upper St. Lawrence would be a flood on the Colorado; the maximum flow of 318,000 cubic feet per second would be low water on the lower Mississippi. In comparison the outflow from the Ohio ranges from some 30,000 cubic feet per second to some 1,500,000 cubic feet per second between low water and flood.

The large dependable discharge of