e north was opened near where Detroit stands,
making a channel to Lake Erie, which then became the outlet for the
whole chain by way of Niagara. A very slight change in levels would
serve to restore the present _regime_. Around Lake Michigan the land
has been slightly raised, the summit above mean water level being only
about 8 ft. Thirty miles from the south shore the lake level is again
reached at a point near Lockport (see Fig. 2); the fall then becomes
more marked. At Lake Joliet, 10 miles further, the fall is 77 ft.; and
at La Salle, 100 miles from Chicago, the total fall reaches 146 feet.
At La Salle the Illinois River is met, and this stream, after a course
of 225 miles, enters the Missouri. In the whole distance the Illinois
River has a fall of 29 ft. "It has a sluggish current; an oozy bed and
bars, formed chiefly by tributaries, with natural depths of 2 ft. to 4
ft.; banks half way to high waters, and low bottoms, one to six miles
wide, bounded by terraces, overflowed during high water from 4 ft. to
12 ft. deep, and intersected in dry seasons by lake, bayou, lagoon,
and marsh, the wreck of a mighty past."

The rectification of the Illinois and the construction of a large
canal from La Salle to Lake Michigan are, therefore, all that is
necessary to open a waterway to the Gulf of Mexico, and to make
Chicago doubly a port; on the one hand, for the enormous lake traffic
now existing; on the other, for the trade that would be created in
both directions, northward to Lake Michigan, and southward to the
Gulf.

As a matter of fact this great scheme has long occupied the attention
of the United States government. A bill in 1882 authorized surveys for
"a canal from a point on the Illinois River, at or near the town of
Hennepin, by the most practical route to the Mississippi River ... and
a survey of the Illinois and Michigan Canal connecting the Illinois
River with Chicago, and estimates from its enlargements." This scheme
only contemplated navigation for boats up to 600 tons. In 1885 the
Citizens' Association, of Chicago caused a report to be made for an
extended plan. The name of Mr. L.E. Cooly, at that time municipal
sanitary engineer, was closely associated with this report, as it is
at the present time for the agitation for carrying out the works. This
report recommended that "an ample channel be created from Chicago to
the Illinois River, sufficient to carry away in a diluted state the
sewage of a large populati