Mr. Pinkerton says, " The English canals are generally from 3 to 5 feet deep, and from ,20 to 40 wide, and the lock-gates from 10 to 12. But they answer the purpose of land-carriage, their only design."

Again-" The Duke of Bridgewater is justly venerated as the founder of inland navigation [in England.] He was seconded by Brindley, than whom a greater natural genius in mechanics never existed.

"Their first canal extends from Worsley's mills, by a circuitous route, 9 miles, to Manchester. This beautiful canal is thrown over the river Irwell by an -arch of 39 feet in height, under which barges pass without lowering their masts. Yet tile expense of this noble canal, in the then comparatively cheap state of labour and provisions, was only computed at 1000 guineas per mile [equal to 4750 dollars.] The various machines and inventions of Brindley, for its construction and preservation, deservedly excite wonder ; but a detail cannot be given here.

" The grand design of Brindley was to join the four great ports of England, viz. Bristol, London, Liverpool, and Hull, by inland navigation.. The two latter are joined by a canal from the river Trent, and proceeding north to the Mersey. This is styled the Grand Trunk. It was begun in 1766 and finished in 1777. Its length is 99 miles. It was attended with great difficulties, particularly in passing the river Dove in Derbyshire, where there is an aqueduct of 23 arches. The tunnel through the hill of Hare-castle in Staffordshire, is in length 2830 yards [524 rods] and is more than 70 yards [210 feet] below tile surface of the ground, and was executed with great labour and expense."

The same author, in noticing the canal from Dublin to the river Shannon, and that it failed through want of able engineers, closes his remarks with the following. " But in the first place, the avaricious and jobbing spirit of the persons employed-and latterly, the distracted state of the country, have hitherto impeded these noble intentions."

Also, in speaking of the canal of Arragon in Spain, he says, " One of these branches is conducted over the valley of Riojalon by an aqueduct bridge of 710 fathoms [258 rods] in length, and but only 17 feet thick at the base."

The American Encyclopedia informs, that " In the Dutch, Austrian, and French Netherlands, there is a very great number of canals ; that from Bruges to Ostend carries vessels of 200 tons."

The Chinese have also a great number of canals; that which runs from Canton to Pekin extends about 825 miles in length, and was executed about 300 years ago."

I have enlarged my extracts with an intention of their serving as articles of information, without the expectation of having reference to many of them hereafter.

Having finished them, I find more remarks to offer under this head than I at first contemplated. I shall offer the importance of the subject, in apology to the reader, for my prolixity, digressions, and defect of language, which he may feel disposed to censure.

As American articles of commerce are principally its agricultural products, their bulk and weight impose large charges on their transportation to market. These charges are augmented by the scarcity of hands and the high price of manual and animal labour in this country.

In England many of her rivers (which compared with ours, are but farm-brooks and millstreams) have been canalled and with advantage, because the price of manual labour is lower than that of beasts of draft and burden, when compared in their proportions with those of this country. Our streams are more than proportionably larger to our excess of bulk and wages. Our produce, forming tile larger freight, can, in its course to market, mostly glide with the current, while the up-freight, consisting of manufactured articles, is proportionably lighter.

The important object of canals is to substitute animal labour in the transport of produce with water machines, and to bestow the saved labour in transport on the cultivation of the soil, where these machines cannot be made to apply. For us to derive the greatest advantage from them, it is necessary they should be calculated on a large scale, sufficient to enter immediately into a competition, and shortly lead to an entire exclusion of land transport within their range. In a word, it should answer the same purpose the Hudson River does its adjacent territory, where no produce is carried to New-York market by land north of Kingsbridge.

The experiments on canals, hitherto made in the United States, are on the small scale. They are but little more than auxiliaries to our land carriage. The navigation of the Mo hawk and Seneca rivers, is strictly so. They merely serve the purpose of facilitating the surplus produce of the country to market, which, for the want of a sufficient number of draft-teams, would be materially retarded. The charges on land or water transport are about the same. The size of boats in use on these rivers are mostly five or ten tons. Owing to the small size of the Herkimer Canal, and the locks at Little Falls, the latter size is the largest which can be admitted : and in consequence of the light streams of Wood Creek and the upper part of the Mohawk, with the numerous rifts and false channels around the islands in the lower part of the latter, the smaller sized boats are navigated with difficulty during the two or three months of summer drought.

It certainly must be acknowledged that the inhabitants within the vicinity of the western part of this navigation, have exercised a degree of patience toward the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, in their neglect of clearing the channel of the Mohawk from its minor obstructions, by which, it is problematical, they have exposed their charter to a forfeiture. I am not alone in the opinion, that for little more than 1000 dollars material improvements might be made in that river, by a well-constructed float, with a windlass and grappling irons, by which many of the large stones in the rifts might be removed, and the false channels dammed two or three feet high, so as to turn all their waters, when low, into the main channel.

In the account of the canal of Clyde we have its particular dimensions with that of the boat. In that of Kiel, its dimensions with the burthen of the boat. In that of Languedoc, its dimensions only, those of the boat being left to our inference. That of the Clyde has about the same draft of water which the Hudson River has on the bars a few miles below Albany. These canals are of those sizes adapted to the purposes of great utility.

The dimensions which I conceive best to adopt for the Genesee Canal is the commodious width of the Languedoc, about 100 feet, and 10 feet in depth. I cannot perceive any obstacle to these dimensions, but that of accommodating the Mohawk to its depth; and I am far from conceiving that impracticable. To clear its channel from sunken timber-its rifts of their rocks-sinking the bed of the river at the small rifts, and in some cases to throw their falls into the larger ones-at a few of the larger rifts erect shallow locks-erect dams in an oblique direction across the false channels-erect wing dams at the head of the broad and shallow parts of the river-rebuild the locks and canals on a larger scale. To these and such other improvements as science and experience shall advise, add the waters of the Genesee Canal, and I presume it would not fall far short of 10 feet draft of water.

A material argument for giving the canal a good width, is its furnishing the Mohawk with the complementary waters of its own draft.

How far steam-boats can be adapted to practice in canals, so as to supersede the use of towing-paths and their draft cattle, time and experiment have yet to determine.

In my next I shall speak of the expense of the proposed canal, with some remarks on its utility.

HERCULES.