to a depth of 21 feet for a minimum width of 300 feet where the traffic is in one direction only and a width of 600 to 1,000 feet where up bound and down bound traffic use the same channel.

We have seen that the traffic of the St. Marys River has always been important. When first discovered by the pioneer, the river was used as a highway for the red men who gathered on its banks to live upon its principal product, the delicious whitefish, now a widely famed delicacy. On the coming of the white man the river became an important link in the line of transportation of furs to Montreal on the way to European cities.

The discovery of iron ore and copper on Lake Superior called for better means of transportation than the fur-carrying bateaux and at first schooners, and later steamboats, were plying the waters of the St. Marys in taking these heavier products to market and returning with tools and provisions for the miners and the communities dependent on their industry. The barrier presented by the Rapids to craft of this character, and consequent delay and cost of portage, became intolerable and a canal and locks, great for their time, were constructed.

Since that time, enlargement and improvement have been comparatively rapid but never in advance of the need on the contrary, it has been difficult for the construction of better facilities to keep up with the rapid growth of the commerce offered.

The present importance of the waterway is but little understood or appreciated by more than the few in close touch with its traffic. In 1916 the tonnage carried on this waterway was double what it had been in 1905, which was in turn double what it had been in 1898. Going back a little farther, the traffic increased tenfold in 25 years.

Compared with other waterways, the weight tonnage of the St. Marys River is approximately four times that of the Suez Canal, six times that of the Panama and fourteen times that of the Manchester Canal.

It equals the foreign commerce of the principal American ports of the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf combined, and exceeds the domestic commerce of forty of the most important inland waterways of the United States other than the Great Lakes.

Because of the part it played in the development of the country, its natural beauty and stimulating climate, and its long-continued and increasing commercial importance, the St. Marys River thus forms an appropriate center for the historical events recorded in this volume.

Tobogganers near Foot of Hill, Easterday Avenue.

First toboggan slide was in 1883 and 1884.

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