1861. The work on the eastern end was under the superintendence of Edward Creighton, while I was given charge of the construction from this end. The lines of the California State Telegraph Company had been extended as far as Virginia City in Nevada after the consolidation of the lines, so it was decided that we should begin on the overland telegraph at Carson City. The wires and insulators had been ordered from the east and shipped around Cape Horn. The next most important item of materials were the poles. These had to be hauled on wagons and distributed along the route from Carson City to Salt Lake, a distance of 600 miles. As there was not a stick of timber in sight along the whole distance it seemed a puzzle that would be hard to solve. Fortunately, among my assistants was a young man full of pluck and energy, James Street, who was a personal friend of Brigham Young, and early in the spring he went to Salt Lake and made arrangements with the Mormons for the necessary poles along that section of the line. Furthermore, he made friends of the Indian chiefs as far as possible, and this proved of the greatest advantage.

A man who in a negative way did a great deal for the telegraph was Shokup, head chief of the Shoshones. He was not only a man of power in his own tribe, but exerted a strong influence over the Goshuts and Pah-Utes. Shokup was persuaded to take a stage ride as far as Carson City, and the telegraph was explained to him by an interpreter. He afterward called it "We-ente-mo-kete-bope," meaning "wire rope express." His idea of the telegraph was that it was an animal, and he wished to know on what it fed. They told him it ate lightning; but as he had never seen any one make a supper of lightning he was not disposed to believe that. He was very well treated in Carson City, and he was told that he might talk with the Big Captain (President H. W. Carpentier) of the telegraph company at San Francisco. Thereupon he dictated the following dispatch:

"Sho-kup, Big Chief of the Shoshones, says to Big Captain at San Francisco

that his Indians will not injure the telegraph line. Sho-kup is a friend of the white man. His people obey him. He

will order them to be friendly with the white men and not injure the telegraph. He would like to see Big Captain, but he must return to his tribe and cannot go to San Francisco."

On receipt of this message General Carpentier, president of the company, sent Sho-kup several friendly messages and ordered presents of food and clothing to be made to him. We realized fully the necessity of having the Indians for our friends, and no pains were spared to this end.

The line was first staked off, the hole diggers followed; then came the pole setters, and next the wire party. We made from three to eight miles per day. An advance telegraph station was kept up with the head of the line, and progress reported from day to day. The news received on the arrival of the Pony Express was telegraphed at once to San Francisco and other points. Commercial dispatches were also sent and received daily, and in this way the newspapers in San Francisco were supplied with news and were daily gaining on time as the lines advanced east and west across the continent to their meeting point.

The most friendly relations were maintained with the Indians, and many of them were employed by us largely with this point in mind, that they might report to their tribes how well they were treated and thus favorably influence them toward the members of the party and the telegraph line. That this good feeling was maintained throughout was also in a measure due to an order issued at the start that any man of the expedition getting into trouble with the Indians, or their squaws, would be immediately dismissed from the service, and this rule was strictly enforced.

Besides our general kindness, several incidents occurred that made the Indians think that the "wire express" was distinctly a spirit to be tampered with only by the tribe of white men telegraph operators. At one time, about 200 miles east of the Sierra Nevada, a thunder

storm broke over the valley at some distance from where we were working. The wires became so charged with electricity that the men were obliged to use buckskin gloves to avoid the shock. Some strange Indians came up about this time, and one of the bucks volunteered to help pull on the wire that the men were stretching. His bare hands and feet were just the kind of a conductor that old electro had. been waiting for, it gave him such a shock that he doubled over to the ground.

Quick as a flash he dropped the wire and made the prettiest 400-yard dash that I have ever seen. He didn't even stop to take breath. Off at a safe distance he recovered his dignity, came to a full stop and gravely motioned for the uninitiated bucks of his party to approach. What he said to them is probably a matter of Indian history, but always remained a dark secret with us. He felt no antagonism toward the party. In fact, we went up a thousand per cent. in his estimation. Those Indians decided that we were an exclusive tribe of white Indians all by ourselves, who could handle the unseen spirits without trouble, and they passed the word around among the tribes that the best thing to be done was to treat us well and look out for the wire. After that when an Indian wanted to cross under a telegraph line, the favorite method was for him to get on a horse and go under with full speed ahead.

Even later, when the Indians were on the rampage for soldiers and settlers, they always treated the telegraph with a certain amount of respect. At one time they wrecked an office and carried away a carboy of nitric acid under the delusion that it was a superior quality of firewater. The Indian does not drink his whiskey in pony glasses, but always takes a good swig out of the demijohn to make sure. The first buck who tackled the nitric acid was laid out stiff and cold in less time than it takes to tell about it, and thereupon it was decided in council hurriedly called that any tribe of white men who could drink firewater as strong as that were entitled to the undying respect and admiration of the best Indian buck who ever wore moccasins. And so the decree

went forth that the best thing for good Indians was to give any of the paraphernalia of the "wireless express" men a wide berth; that telegraph operators and linemen were good fellows themselves, but their affairs must not be meddled with under any circumstances.

The construction of the line was pushed forward as rapidly as possible. Many serious difficulties were encountered that required our greatest energies to overcome. In one instance sixteen miles of line were built in one day on the desert in order to reach a point where water could be obtained. After many vicissitudes the line was completed for the first message across the great trans-continental telegraph line, which flew over the wire on the evening of October 24, 1861. The great work which had been agitated for so many years on this coast, in the east, and in congress, was completed, and in the short space of five months from the time the expedition moved from Sacramento. It had been proposed to get up a celebration in honor of such an important event, but owing to the uncertainty as to the exact time when the line would be completed no preparation had been made. The employes of the company who stood around manifested the greatest anxiety, watching for the first click of the instrument across the continent. At last it came and read as follows:

"SALT LAKE, Oct. 24, 1861. 5:13 p. m. "TO GENERAL W. H. CARPENTIER: "Line just completed. Can you come to office? STREET."

The overland telegraph was then an accomplished fact. A few years previous news from the other side was only semimonthly and usually from twenty-five to thirty days old. Then came the semiweekly mail by the overland route, with news on an average from from eighteen to twenty days old. After that came the pony express. This latter, though a vast improvement on both the first and second, only made clearer that something still remained to be done to bring California within the sphere of the other civilized countries of the world.

This the telegraph in its first click did. With it disappeared the feeling of isolation the inhabitants of the Pacific coast

had labored under. San Francisco was in instant communication with New York and the Atlantic seaboard. The change was a great one to which the people readily adapted themselves, having wished and waited so long for it. In that moment

California was brought within the circle of the Sisterhood of States. No longer as one beyond the pale of civilization, but, with renewed assurance of peace and prosperity, she was linked in electrical bonds to the great national family union.

"Great Canals of the World," is the title of a study prepared by the Treasury Bureau of Statistics for publication in the forthcoming volume of the Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance. It shows the commerce, cost and dimensions of the great canals of the world, especially those connecting great bodies of water and which may be properly termed ship canals.

Ship canals connecting great bodies of water and of sufficient dimensions to accommodate the great modern vessels plying upon such waters are of comparatively recent production and few in number. The one great example of works of this character which has been a sufficient length of time in existence and operation to supply satisfactory data as to cost of maintenance and operation and practical value to the commerce of the world is the Suez canal, and for this the available statistics begin with the year 1870, while its new and enlarged dimensions only date from the year 1896. For the Sault Ste. Marie canal, connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron, statistics date from 1855, though for the canal in its present form they cover but about four years. Statistics of the Welland canal date from 1867, but for the canal in its present enlarged form cover only two years of operation. The other great ship canals of the world are of much more recent construction and data regarding their operation, therefore cover a comparatively brief term, and in some cases are scarcely at present available in detail.

The artificial waterways which may

properly be termed ship canals are nine in number, viz:

1. The Suez canal, begun in 1859 and completed in 1869.

2. The Cronstadt and St. Petersburg canal, begun in 1877 and completed in 1890.

3. The Corinth canal, begun in 1884 and completed in 1893.

4. The Manchester ship canal, completed in 1894.

5. The Kaiser Wilhelm canal, connecting the Baltic and North Seas, completed in 1895.

6. The Elbe and Trave canal, connecting the North Sea and Baltic, opened in 1900.

7. The Welland canal, connecting Lake Erie with Lake Ontario.

8 and 9. The two canals, United States and Canadian, respectively, connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron.

The description which is given of each of these great waterways shows that the length of the Suez canal is about 90 miles, the cost $100,000,000, the present depth 31 feet, width at bottom 108 feet and at the surface 420 feet, and that the number of vessels passing through it has grown from 486 in 1870 to 1,494 in 1875, 2,026 in 1880, 3,389 in 1890 and 3,441 in 1900. The tolls charged are about $2 per net registered ton.

The Cronstadt and St. Petersburg canal, which gives a passage way for great vessels to St. Petersburg, is 16 miles long, including the deepening of the bay channel, 201⁄2 feet in depth, and the total cost estimated at $10,000,000.

The Corinth canal, which connects the

Gulf of Corinth with the Gulf of Aegina, is 4 miles in length, 26% feet in depth, 72 feet wide at the bottom, cost about $5,000,000 and reduces the sailing distance about 175 miles. The average tolls charged are 18c per ton and 20c per passenger.

The Manchester ship canal, which connects Manchester, England, with the Mersey river and Liverpool, was opened in 1894. Its length is 351⁄2 miles, depth 26 feet, width at bottom 120 feet and at the surface 175 feet, and cost $75,000,000. The commerce on the canal shows a growth from 879,204 tons in 1895 to 1,492,320 tons in 1900.

The Kaiser Wilhelm canal, which connects the Baltic and North Seas through Germany, is 61 miles in length, 291⁄2 feet in depth, 72 feet wide at the bottom, 190 feet wide at the surface, and cost about $40,000,000. The number of vessels passing through it has increased from 19,960 in 1897 to 29,095 in 1900, of which number 16,776 were sailing vessels. The tonnage in 1897 was 1,848,458, and in 1900, 4,282,094 tons. An additional canal connecting the same bodies of water by way of the Elbe and Trave rivers was opened in 1900. Its length is 41 miles, depth about 10 feet, width 72 feet, and cost $6,000,000.

The great North Holland canal, which connects Amsterdam with the sea, cut in 1845 but deepened at a later date, has now a depth of 20 feet, a width of 125 feet at the surface. The Caledonian canal, which connects the Atlantic and and North Sea through the north of Scotland, is 17 feet in depth, 50 feet in width at the bottom, 250 miles long, cost $7,000,000, and is at its highest point 94 feet abovesea level. The canal du Midi, cut through France from Toulouse on the Garonne to Cette on the Mediterranean, a distance of 150 miles, is 61⁄2 feet deep, 60 feet wide, and 600 feet above sea level at its highest point, and has 114 locks; total cost $3,500,000.

In America the canals connecting the Great Lakes are the principal ship canals and are three in number-the Welland canal, originally constructed in 1833 and enlarged in 1871 and 1900; the Sault Ste. Marie, or St. Mary's river

canal, opened in 1855 and enlarged in 1897; and the Canadian canal at St. Mary's River, opened in 1895. The American and Canadian canals at St. Mary's Falls are practically identical in location and dimensions, and are used interchangeably by vessels engaged in commerce, as convenience may dictate. The depth of the canals at the St. Mary's River is sufficient to accommodate vessels drawing 20 feet of water. The American canal was originally constructed by the State of Michigan, but subsequently taken charge of by the United States and enlarged at a cost of $2,150,000. The cost of the Welland canal was about $30,000,000, largely due to the fact that 25 locks are required in surmounting the rise of 327 feet in the distance of 27 miles. The number of vessels passing through the canals at St. Mary's River has greatly increased during the past few years, while the number passing through the Welland canal has materially decreased; the number passing through the St. Mary's canals being in 1873, 2,517, and in 1901, 20,041, of which 15,837 passed through the United States canal, and 4,204 through the Canadian. The number of vessels passing through the Welland canal has decreased from 6,425 in 1873 to 2,202 in 1899. The marked contrast between the business of the St. Mary's Falls and Welland canals is largely due to the fact that the freights originating in the Lake Superior district are chiefly discharged at Lake Erie ports, and those destined for the Lake Superior region are chiefly produced in the section contiguous to Lake Erie, the Lake Superior freights being chiefly iron, copper and grain, and the Lake Erie freights for Lake Superior, coal and manufactures. The business of the St. Mary's Falls canals by far surpasses in volume that of any other canal of the world, the freight tonnage of the American and Canadian canals combined being in 1901, 24,626,976 registered tons, while the net tonnage of the Suez canal in 1900 was 9,378,152 tons, and that of the Kaiser Wilhelm canal 4,282,094 tons.