Report ... on the Ottawa survey, submitted to the Legislative assembly for their information.

Calumet Falls, seventeen miles, we have some ten miles of shallow water, from six to nine feet, over shoals composed of sand or alluvial deposit.The water in this channel can, by the simple construction of an easily formed dam at the Falls, be kept up permanently to a level that would, without damaging any lands now available for cultivation, give a minimum depth throughout of nine feet, and a channel of twelve, or for that matter, fifteen feet in depth, can then easily be obtained through the shoals by dredging out from two to six feet of the soft deposit of which the bottom is composed.3rd.The soundings of the Matawan River are highly satisfactory, extending, save in the few cases of "open water" (nearly all soundings having been taken from the ice), from its confluence with the Ottawa to its head waters in the upper extremity of Front Lake, distance 42 miles.In mid channel the depths average as follows :1 5 feet and over 32 miles.12 " and less than 15 5 " 10 " and under 5 "Of the deep portions, that is to say fifteen feet and over, three-fourths, or twenty- four miles, have more than 30 feet soundings.In " Lac Plein Chants," a stretch of smooth water five miles in length not far above the mouth of the river, the average depth is more than eighty feet ; in many instances bottom not being discoverable with three times that length of line.Lac u Talon," which we reach at eighteen miles from the mouth, and whichgives us eight miles of still water, is also very deep, never less than twenty (20) feet in mid channel and commonly more than one hundred feet.We then cometo La Tortue and Trout Lakes, twelve miles more of smooth water.In the for- mer the minimum soundings are fifteen feet, in the latter thirty, while frequently more than two hundred feet are found.Apart from the regular surveying operations, Mr. Stewart, my principal assistant in the work, took advantage of the good ice in the winter of 1856-7, to ascertain the depth to be depended on in the Chats Lake (the upper part of sec- tion No. 2 in Index) from Portage du Fort to within three miles of the head of the Chats Canal.Consecutive and close soundings were taken throughout that length, some seventeen miles, except for about two-thirds of a mile of open water at the Chen- eaux Rapids and resulted in showing a minimum depth of about fourteen feet,the soundings generally ranging between thirty and sixty feet, while the lead at the end of thirty fathoms of line, frequently announced " no bottom."I have thus had soundings taken over about one hundred and fifty miles of the proposed chain of navigation, upwards of one-third of the whole estimated length, and in that distance find only some thirty miles (including the Chats Canal) requiring artificial improvement to render each section continuously navigable in itself for vessels drawing twelve or even fifteen feet of water.As I proceed with this report I trust to be able to show r that, following the route of the waters proposed to be improved from Bytown to the Georgian Bay, the points between which my whole field of operations lay, there are at least one hundred and twenty miles more of deep and level water, in detached sections it may be, but requiring little or no aid from the hand of man to render them amenable to the purposes of ship navigation.The falls and rapids of the surveyed and other portions of the route will be touched on by and by when I come to enter on the general engineering features of the whole scheme, and will in that connection be exhibited in tabular form as an appendix to this report.Besides the hydrographical examinations embraced in the foregoing summary of soundings, a survey has been also made of the ridge of land dividing Trout Lake, at the head of the Matawan River and the most westwardly of the waters tributary to the Ottawa, from Lake Nippisingue, whose outlet is by the French River to Lake Huron ; and the topographical features of the barrier between where the waters of two of the mightiest of American rivers approach almost within rifle shot of one another, have been ascertained with sufficient accuracy to enable me to pronounce with confidence on the practicability and probable cost of uniting them.Having sketched, as above, my course of proceedings towards the discharge of the trust committed to me, I will next, before entering on consecutive details as to harborage and lockage, distance and depth, exhibitory of the engineering characteristics of the route, endeavor to give, for the information of those who, though interested in the project, may not be familiar with the geography of the proposed line of communication, a descriptive outline of the chain of waters which are to form the Ottawa and French River navigation.The great Ottawa River, which at the foot of the island of Montreal becomes finally merged in the greater St. Lawrence, has a north-westwardly course of probably some five hundred miles, and may be said to drain all that portion of the area of Canada comprised between latitude 45 ° and 49 ° and longitude 74 ° and 79J ° .Following the course of this great artery for about three hundred miles fromMontreal, and noting in that distance many large streams pouring into it from both sides, we come to a broad, deep river, having an ascending course to the west.This is the Matawan, the widest and deepest of the western tributaries of the Ottawa.Turning out of the main river, we follow up this branch directly towards the setting sun, for a little over forty miles, when, far larger at its sources than at its mouth, the Matawan closes abruptly at the head of a deep lake, and, for the first time since starting upon our journey, the waters seem to come to an end.New York.I also ask permission of Mr. J. B. Jervis to make use of some of the figures relating to similar matters set forth in his excellent treatise on the Caughna-Waga Canal project.The following is Mr. McAlpine's table .-TABLE OF THE COST OF TRANSPORT PER TON PER MILE.Ocean.Long voyage 1 mill.Short " 2 to 4 mills.Lake.

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