recommend that books be opened for a subscription of stock to extend the work to the state line, and that as soon as one hundred and fifty thousand dollars be subscribed, the work to be placed under contract.

It may not be deemed out of place in this connection to advert to the fact that an act of incorporation has been passed by the legislature, authorizing the construction of a slack-water navigation on the Youghiogheny river; this is a subject which commends itself strongly to the favourable regard of the stockholders of the Monongahela improvement, as well as of citizens generally. The Youghiogheny passes through one of the finest agricultural districts of Pennsylvania, and its banks abound in extensive deposites of coal and iron ore, and when once that important tributary of the Monongahela is improved, it must add largely to the revenue of our improvement and tend to swell the rapidly augmenting trade of Pittsburgh.

It will be recollected that our original charter contemplated building of dams not exceeding four feet in height, and it was then intended that the locks should be used during low water, and the dams would afford but little impediment to the navigation during high water; it was found however, entirely impracticable to construct the navigation in that way, and the result of an application to the legislature was authority to build dams eight feet high, under which the works were constructed-by raising the dams from four to eight feet high, the project of passing over the dams was abandoned and an exclusive lock navigation substituted: that being the case, there does not appear to be any good reason why the height of the dams should be limited otherwise than by the formation of the banks of the river, the expense of construction and general expediency. For instance, at some points on the river where the banks are high or where there are hills on both sides, a dam of ten, twelve or even fifteen feet might be constructed; and by this means the cost of construction would not only be greatly reduced, but the convenience and facility of using the navigation be promoted for all time to come by the reduced number of locks. And when it is considered that from Brownsville to the state line, a distance of 350 miles, the ascent is 411 feet or about 14 inches per mile; whilst from Pittsburgh to Brownsville, a distance of 55,0% miles, the ascent is only 33 feet or about 7 inches per mile, the necessity of such a change becomes more apparent. It would therefore be wise to ask the legislature for authority to construct the dams to such a height as may be deemed expedient. Should this privilege be granted the stock should be sought after as a matter of speculation, as the investment required to construct the work would be greatly reduced and would yield a large return in the way of dividends.

55

45

The permanency and stability of our improvement has been severely tested during the past season by the tremendous accumulation of ice in the winter months and a succession of high freshets during the summer, from all of which no material damage accrued to the work, thus establishing firmly the confidence of the friends of the work. For a more detailed account of these floods see the report of the engineer.

The improvements adopted by the engineer, Mr. Lothrop, in the construction of dams Nos. 3 and 4, have resulted most favourably; and the repairs on these works during the last year were very trifling indeed, amounting on both locks and dams to less than six hundred dollars. Dam No. 1 required a much larger expenditure, owing to the breach spoken of in a former part of this report; the great depth and reaction of the water caused the stone filling to run out of that portion of the dam, and as this place had given much trouble, it was deemed expedient to make a thorough repair, which was done by putting in a crib twenty-four feet wide and one hundred and sixty-four feet long, extending entirely across the deep water, which was connected with the old dam, filled with stone, and the covering or sheeting then extended over the whole. This repair, which was extraordinary, cost about six thousand dollars. Repairs at No. 2 about eight hundred dollars. The ordinary repairs for the entire navigation costing less than two thousand dollars; and we believe this sum per annum, will be sufficient for a number of years.

For a more detailed condition of the work I would refer you to the report of the engineer herewith, and also to the tabular statements of the inspector of cargoes, for a history of the operations coming under his charge for the year.

In conclusion, it is extremely gratifying, that whilst the revenue has realized fully the highest estimate of the most sanguine friends of the improvement, this result is obtained by charging a rate of tolls greatly below that charged on similar improvements in this and adjoining states, particularly on the article of coal. For instance, the toll on one thousand bushels of coal, passing the entire extent of our navigation, fifty

six miles, through four locks, is only

On the Muskingum lock navigation, Ohio,

same distance and quantity,

Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, Pennsylvania and Ohio,

ditto,

$2.91

7 36

9.00

11 85

10 08

3 36

7 84

10 24

So also of other articles, as may be seen by reference to the rates of toll established on the several improveprovements above mentioned.

Or more than fifty per cent. The increase as will be seen by the inspector's statistics, has not been confined to one or a few articles, but has extended to almost every thing carried on the river, more especially coal and passengers. And whilst the local travel has greatly increased, it is highly gratifying to be able to state, that the number of stage passengers has increased from twelve thousand four hundred and fifty-two last year, to twenty thousand and forty-nine this year, all going to prove the increasing popularity of the route, not only as a medium of communication between the east and west, but also as a matter of convenience and accommodation to the inhabitants of the valley.

Respectfully submitted,

J. K. MOORHEAD, President.

Pittsburgh, January 4, 1847.

REPORT OF SYLVANUS LOTHROP, ESQ.

To the President and Managers of the
Monongahela Navigation Company.

GENTLEMEN,

Agreeably to instructions and in conformity with established usage, I have the honour again to submit for your consideration, a statement of such matters connected with your improvement as have fallen within the scope of my official duty, as your engineer, during the annual period which is just about to expire, together with such observations and reflections as the occasion is calculated to suggest.

My last annual report announced the gratifying intelligence of the entire completion of your improvement from Pittsburgh to Brownsville, and left little more to the future than the ascertainment of its results and the demonstration of its capacity to withstand the vicissitudes of the seasons, with the ice and floods which so frequently alternate in the valley of the Monongahela. I am happy, however, to be enabled to state, that the past year, although remarkable for the rigour of its winter and the inundations by which it was followed-and therefore furnishing one of the most conclusive tests of the durability of your work-has been productive of no damage, and led to no expenditure in the shape of repairs which is even worthy to be recounted.

In the months of December and January last, the ice, which in all our streams had become unusually thick and heavy, was gorged and piled in such fearful masses in your pools as to inspire serious apprehension of danger, not merely amongst the friends of the improvement, but to the inhabitants of the country bordering on the banks of the river. By the latter, it was feared that their lands would be submerged, and by the former, either that the navigation would be suspended till a late period in the spring, or that the force of the accumulated flood, as it burst through its mountain barrier, would uproot and sweep from their moorings the locks and dams which had been erected to confine and gather up the waters of the river. To the astonishment, however, alike of the doubting and dismayed, on the 31st day of January, the whole accumulated mass was lifted from its foundations by a sudden flood in the river, and floated off without inflicting the slightest injury upon either of the interests which was expected to be affected, and on the following day the navigation was open and in actual operation the whole distance between Pittsburgh and Brownsville.

Since

The ice, however, has not been the only enemy with which your work has been obliged to contend. my last annual report, the Monongahela valley has been the scene of inundations of a height and frequency almost unexampled in the history of that river. In the month of July, its waters rose (above the influence of the slack-water) to the enormous elevation of about forty feet above the low water mark, devastating the bottoms, sweeping away buildings, fences, and other improvements, which were supposed to be beyond the reach of any such casualty, submerging every part of the slack-water, except the abutments of the dams, and covering some of the locks to the depth of ten feet; and yet the only injury sustained by your company, was the removal of two small frame offices from locks Nos. 3 and 4, and the washing away of a few yards of embankment, unimportant to the security of the work.

It is worthy to be remarked, moreover, in connection with this branch of the subject, that while the floods. by which the work has been thus temporarily drowned, have done no sensible injury either to your locks or dams, they have been equally unproductive of delay or inconvenience to the public, as the boats employed in the navigation have been enabled thereby to pass and repass over the dams with perfect security, and without the payment of any tribute in the shape of tolls, so long as the locks continued to be disabled by that cause. It is indeed a fact of the most gratifying character, and one which is perhaps without a parallel in the history of similar improvements, that although this important line of communication has been in operation for public use, throughout its whole extent, for a period of more than two years, yet in no single instance has any stoppage or delay occurred during all that interval from any failure in the works, or any other cause than obstruction by ice, at the same season when the navigation of our other streams was suspended for the same reason.

It is not to be inferred, however that the uniformity and regularity with which this important improvement has performed, even in its infancy, the great object for which it was constructed, and the uninterrupted accommodation which it has afforded to the public, have been secured by any considerable outlay of the means of the company, in the shape of repairs. It is a fact as gratifying as that to which your attention has just been called, that during the last year no expenditure, of any amount, has been required upon the whole line of the work, with the exception of an item of some magnitude connected with the south end of dam No. 1. That, however, was one of "extraordinary repair," which arose out of an unfortunate breach which occurred in that dam soon after its completion, and which in consequence of the then embarrassed condition of the company, was suffered to continue until it had washed away the bed of the river to the depth of about forty feet, producing considerable abrasion of the bank, and even threatening to undermine the abutment of the dam itself. This evil was greatly aggravated, if not immediately produced, by the soft and unfavourable nature of the foundation at that point. It is now happily cured, and will probably occasion no further trouble. If it should, however, it may be remedied without much additional expense.

But the experience of the past year has not merely resulted in the ascertainment of the solidity and probable durability of the work itself. It has furnished to its projectors, in the amount of business done upon it, and the revenue which it has already produced, an earnest of what it is destined to perform at no very distant day. Although but two years old and just beginning to struggle into notoriety, as an avenue for the trade and travel between the east and west, it has already yielded a revenue which, after paying expenses, ordinary repairs, and interest upon its large debt, exhibits a surplus equivalent to about eight per centum on its whole capital stock. This, I am inclined to think, is without example in the history of our public works, and may perhaps be mentioned without offence, as a most striking commentary upon the supineness and indifference, and apparent want of sagacity which a few years ago, while running after chimeras, would, but for the enterprise of a few public spirited individuals, have suffered this great work, the most important to this city which has ever been constructed, to perish for the want of a few thousand dollars. It is a remarkable fact, that with so many unanswerable arguments to recommend it to, and enforce it upon the public attention, no work in the country has ever encountered greater obstacles than this. Instead of being, as it ought to have been, fostered by our citizens, and hailed by the inhabitants of the Monongahela valley, as a blessing to themselves, it met with nothing but the most chilling regards from the one; and with either the most violent prejudice, or the most determined hostility from the other. And yet it has already lived to subdue and triumph over both, by increasing the value of the coal lands along the Monongahela, to an amount immeasurably beyond its whole cost, and cheapening at the same time to the consumer here that important element of our comfort and prosperity, to an extent annually which would be far more than equivalent to the interest on the whole investment. It is now, I am happy to say, among the most popular of all our public improvements. Its present advantages are already universally felt, while its future is rapidly unfolding in prospects, as flattering to the landholder of the Monongahela as to the owners of the improvement themselves.

And what a prospect is this! I am sensible, gentlemen, that if I were to permit myself to indulge in the expression of the opinions which I feel authorized to entertain upon this point, I might be regarded by those who are not familiar with this work, as being a little more extravagant than would seem exactly consistent with the gravity of my profession. I cannot, however, forbear a reference to a few facts in relation to this topic, which will perhaps illustrate it as fully as any argument which I could offer.

Before the construction of this work, the Monongahela valley with its vast agricultural and mineral treasures and all its capabilities of supply, depending for its outlet upon the unsteady and uncertain navigation of the river in its natural condition, maintained but a slender and precarious trade with the country below. With the City of Pittsburgh its traffic in the article of coal was absolutely nothing, because it could not be relied upon for any permanent and regular supply. In the spring and fall, it is true, advantage was generally taken of the freshets incident to those seasons, for the purpose of dispatching a fleet of coal boats to the towns and cities along the Ohio and Mississippi. The amount, however, of that article thus shipped for the southern market, was very inconsiderable, not exceeding, perhaps, in the most favourable seasons, a million of bushels per annum; and that, too, shipped under great difficulties, arising from the impossibility of loading the boats at a low stage of water, within any convenient distance of the pits.

The effect of the slackwater improvement was to change at once the whole character of the trade. It was no longer necessary to wagon the coal to a convenient point of embarkation. The formation of the pools produced a safe harbour with a great abundance of water in front of every mine, which enabled its owner to project its contents at once (either by railroad or chute) into the boat which was destined for its reception. But this was not all. The market of Pittsburgh was thrown open for the first time to the proprietors of the coal mines, and under the impulse thus administered by your improvement, the trade in the article of coal, which had maintained but a feeble and sickly existence under the former state of things, started at once into new and active life, springing up in the very first year after the completion of the work, to four and a half millions of bushels, and nearly doubling again in the year which has just ended. The amount of that article, as you will have learned from the report and tables of William M'Ellroy, Esq. which passed through your locks during the last season, was nearly eight millions of bushels, or upwards of two hundred and seventy-seven thousand gross tons, of which nearly three millions were destined for the Pittsburgh market alone! What it will be a few years hence, it would be idle even to conjecture. It is impossible to assign any limit to the ultimate growth of this trade short of the wants of the Mississippi valley, with its teeming myriads of population, the inexhaustible stores of the Monongahela, and the well nigh boundless capability of your work. It is very certain, however, that, great as may be the supply, it will be always outrun by the demand, while it will never perhaps come up to the full measure of the capacity of your improvement. Your locks, always supplied with a great superabundance of water, and capable of passing without exhaustion, in every fifteen minutes of the day, (as they frequently do) a pair of coal boats, containing eight hundred tons of coal, (which would load twenty boats and require as many separate lockages on the Pennsylvania canal,) will be always more than adequate to any demand which is likely to be made upon them, and if found at any future period to be insufficient, may be readily doubled to meet the exigencies of the trade. An amount, however, very far short of what they are at present fitted to accommodate, will be more than sufficient to render your improvement the most productive and valuable to its owners of any which has ever been constructed in this or in any other country.

It will be observed that in the speculations in which I have been indulging in regard to the future prospects of this work, I have confined myself entirely to the article of coal, which, however, is only one of the many sources of revenue upon which you may safely rely. The reports of your collectors shew, that besides the large amount of that article already stated, no less than forty thousand tons additional of freight of other descriptions, and sixty-five thousand two hundred and fifty-two passengers have been carried upon it during the past year. That these latter items will rapidly increase, as the improvement, which is yet so comparatively new and obscure, becomes more generally known and advances in popularity with the merchant and the traveller is perfectly obvious. They are not essential, however, to its support. It can live on the trade which it has itself erected without borrowing a bale of merchandize or a single passenger from any other of the great highways of the country. Constructed at a cost (under all its misfortunes) of less than five hundred thousand dollars, about equal to fifteen or twenty miles of our great canals and railroads and maintained at an expense not exceeding the pay of a mere board of canal commissioners, it can already boast of a tonnage trebling that of the western division of the Pennsylvania canal, and will ere long, unless I am greatly deceived, throw even the Lehigh and Schuylkill navigation into the shade.

It is worthy of remark, however, while on this subject, that the original design of your improvement is still unfulfilled, and that a vast treasury of wealth yet remains to be opened in its extension upward to the Virginia state line. To accomplish this you have only to construct some three or not exceeding four additional locks and dams at an aggregate cost which would not probably exceed one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, while it would extend the sphere of your operations, and by opening up a region abounding in iron as well as coal, add largely to the products of your present work. The eminent success of your enterprise, so far as it has been already prosecuted, has awakened a strong desire in the inhabitants of that region and the country beyond, to participate in the advantages which you have already conferred on their neighbours below; and a movement is now in progress to secure a connection which will probably result in effecting the object before the condition of your own finances will enable you to undertake it yourselves.

The valley of the Youghiogheny too, with all its immense mineral deposites, and its enormous strata of bituminous coal, is destined also to become a customer of your improvement, and to pour its annual tribute into your treasury. A charter has been already obtained by the inhabitants of that valley to erect a company for the construction of a slack-water navigation as far up as Robbstown on that river, and the expense will be so trifling when compared with the addition which it will assuredly make to the value of the coal lands along its banks which are now comparatively worth nothing, that it is not to be doubted that the object will be accomplished in the course of a very few years. Should the resources of the people, however, who are most deeply interested, prove inadequate to the undertaking, I would respectfully suggest that it addresses itself to your own interests with so much force as to entitle it to your active cooperation at the very earliest moment when your means and credit will enable you to lend it a helping hand.

You want not, however, as I have already remarked, either these or any other auxiliaries to render your work as productive as you could reasonably desire. The country which it already penetrates and traverses for the fifty-six

miles between Pittsburgh and Brownsville, is one vast and unbroken coal field, presenting itself in one continuous and uninterrupted line along the river banks throughout the whole distance, and containing within its capacious bosom a store of that invaluable fuel, as boundless as the market which it is destined to supply. The trade in this article alone has grown in a single year from one hundred and sixty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-one, to two hundred and seventy-seven thousand eight hundred and eighteen tons, or more than sixtyeight per cent. At the same rate of progression-and the experience of the Lehigh and Schuylkill navigation, with no better or greater market than this, proves that the calculation is not extravagant or unreasonable it will, in less than three years, amount to one million of tons, (which would be equal to the highest capacity of our best lines of canal,) and would yield to the company in the shape of tolls, at the present very low rates, and taking half the length of the improvement as the average distance of transportation, a yearly revenue of about sixty thousand dollars, without taking into the account either merchandize, produce or passengers, from which a large share of your receipts will always be derived, and which have already amounted to the very handsome sum of thirty-three thousand two hundred and eleven dollars, as will be seen by a reference to the returns of the last year.

It is proper to state, however, in connection with this subject, that the rate of toll assessed upon the article of coal, under the very liberal and judicious regulations which you have adopted with a view to the encouragement of the trade, are far short of what you are authorized to impose, and much lower than is exacted on any other improvement of the like description in this country. By the 10th section of the act incorporating your company, it is provided that the president and managers shall be entitled to take and receive the same rate of toll per ton or otherwise, at their discretion, as the Schuylkill navigation company are entitled to receive under their act of incorporation. A comparison of prices, however, will shew that on the Monongahela a thousand bushels of coal are charged for the whole distance of fifty-five miles, but two dollars and ninety-one cents, or at the rate of 80 cents per ton; while on the Schuylkill where the charges have been kept down to the lowest point by the powerful rivalry of the Reading railroad, the toll for the same quantity and distance is eleven dollars and eighty-five cents, or at the rate of 33 cents per ton. The same difference, moreover, will be found to prevail upon a comparison with other public works, and if it were necessary, I could refer to at least six of them, in this and the adjoining states, whose tables and rates are now before me, and which, although constructed for the most part by state resources and designed, of course, rather as works of great public utility, than for purposes of private profit, will shew an average charge on the article of coal, of at least treble the amount levied on the Monongahela navigation.

But I will not weary you with any further speculations on this point. I beg leave, however, respectfully to suggest for your consideration whether it would not be advisable to assess the toll on coal, as is invariably done elsewhere, by weight instead of measure. The former is indeed the only test which can be conveniently applied, and is for that reason in actual use at present upon your improvement. The result of the measurement of boats engaged in this trade, although given in bushels, is obtained by an estimate of the quantity of water displaced by them. The depth of immersion, is graded to a multiplier in bushels and decimals for each superficial foot of surface; and for this purpose I have, in the absence of any legislation on the subject, adopted the conventional weight of eighty pounds as the equivalent of a bushel of coal. The idea of computing the quantity by the slow and at best uncertain process of measurement, is of course entirely out of the question, even with the assistance of a well regulated standard for the heaped bushel. It is a remarkable fact, however, that although the heaped bushel is in much more general use in this country than any other, the legislature of this state in their various regulations on the subject of weights and measures have never defined its contents. The Winchester bushel of 2,150,40 cubic inches, has indeed been adopted by them as the standard of dry measure, but so far as regards the dimensions and contents of the cone required to constitute the heaped bushel, there is no fixed rule; and the measure of course varies with each measurer, and is believed to be one thing at the mines and on the rivers, and another in our cities.

It is, however, understood that the conventional bushel for heaped measure throughout the United States is 2688 cubic inches, which will be found to be the contents of the Winchester bushel, with a cone of 18 inches diameter, and 6 inches in height, and to be precisely equal to five pecks of that measure; and it is upon that standard that the assumed weight of eighty pounds is predicated.

Having already extended my remarks in regard to the business, capacity, and prospects of the important work which you have so recently completed, to a much greater length than I had originally intended, I now hasten to conclude with a few additional remarks which have been suggested by the observations of the past year.

Since the last annual report the lockhouse at No. 2, which was then in the course of construction, has been finished and an additional lot purchased at No. 3, where a permanent brick dwelling house has been erected, for the accommodation of the collector at that point.

It is also proper to state, that in consequence of some mistake in the location of the lower mitre sill at lock No. 1, which was intended to conform in elevation to the bed of the Ohio, but is not sufficiently low for that part of the navigation between the lock and the landing at Pittsburgh, some difficulty has occurred in passing heavily loaded boats in seasons of low water, which, however, have not been frequent during the past year. The busi