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A FEW HISTORICAL FACTS AND THE CANALS--Continuea Transport to The St. Lawrence Seaway Authority on April 1st, 1959. It may be regarded as the first portion of the Seaway to be con- structed. It connects two of the Great Lakes and forms an integral part of the recently completed deep waterway, providing facilities for large lakers and ocean navigation between Montreal and the Head of the Lakes. As the Welland Ship Canal it was officially opened on August 6, 1932, by the Earl of Bessborough, then Governor-General, in cere- monies at the South end of the flight of three locks, Nos. 4, 5 and 6. These overcome the difference in level created by the Niagara es- carpment. The Rt. Hon. R. B. Bennett ((later Viscount Bennett) was Canada's Prime Minister and the Minister of Railways and Canals was the Hon. R. J. Manion. The British Empire Economic Conference was in session at the time at Ottawa and the official opening was at- tended by representatives of the various Dominions and other British entities attending the conference. As Lord Bessborough turned a lever which raised a fender pro- tecting the gates of the east chamber of Lock 6, the S. S. "Lemoyne", then the largest freighter on the Great Lakes, entered the lock down- bound. On that occasion she carried 530,000 bushels of wheat. She is 633 feet long and has a beam of 70 feet and was sailing a draught of 19 feet, six inches. The present Welland Canal is the fourth constructed as a means of overcoming the obstacle to navigation presented by the rapids and falls of the Niagara River. Figuratively these canals permitted ships to "climb Niagara Falls". The world renowned falls were apparently first reported upon by the explorer Etienne Brule in 1616 or 1617 and shown on Samuel de Champlain's map of 1632. By order of the International Joint Commission the level of Lake Ontario is to be maintained between 244 and 248 feet above sea level as near as may be and the levels of Lake Erie vary in nature between 569 and 575 feet above sea level. The difference in level overcome by the Welland Canal is generally expressed as 327 feet. The present canal is 27.6 miles long, has eight locks and its alignment is almost exactly North and South. The Lake Ontario or northern entrance is at Port Weller and the Lake Erie entrance is located at Port Colborne. In considering the history of canalization of the Niagara Escarp- ment credit should be given to a man whose name is sometimes for- gotten nowadays. He was William Hamilton Merritt, a New Yorker by birth, who fought as a captain of the Canadian Militia in the War of 1812. Merritt became a prominent businessman in the then Province of Upper Canada, now known as Ontario, and was prominent in the local government of his time, being at one time president of the Exec- utive Council of Upper and Lower Canada. Previous to the construction of the First Welland Canal, all freight had to be transported overland from Queenston on the Niag- aga River to the mouth of Chippawa Creek above Niagara Falls. The portage was considered of such importance that it was controlled by a French military post as early as 1678. It passed into British hands in 1759. In 1764 a capstan incline was built on the east side of the Niag- ara River to the top of the escarpment, 325 feet high, from which a wagon portage, about six miles long, was used to carry bateaux and merchandise to the head of the Falls. Tolls were 10 pounds New York currency and upwards for each bateau. (Tolls were removed on the Third Welland Canal in 1905). It was the need for a regular flow of water for Merritt's gristmill and sawmill and the example of the construction of the Erie Canal in the United States that prompted the building, largely as the result of Merritt's initiative, of the First Welland Canal by a private company called the Welland Canal Company. For this the first sod was turned in 1824 and by 1833 the canal was completed. From Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario, the route of this canal followed the valley of Twelve Mile Creek to the summit level at Thor- old, thence southerly to the Welland River at Port Robinson. From Port Robinson vessels descended the Welland River to its mouth at Chippawa and thence proceeded up the Niagara River to Lake Erie. The summit level from Port Robinson to Allanburg was supplied from the Grand River above Dunnville by means of a Feeder Canal 27 miles long. On November 20, 1829, the first two schooners, one British and one American, were taken through the canal from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. By 1833 the summit level was extended from Port Robin- son to Port Colborne on Lake Erie, which port thereafter became the southern terminus of the canal. This canal was later taken over by the Government of Upper Canada and enlarged between 1841 and 1850. The completion of this work coincided with the completion of the St. Lawrence Canals be- tween Montreal and Lake Ontario in 1848 and permitted vessels 140 470