4. The Experimental Blasting Operations.

Fifty heavy sub-marine charges were fired, in accordance with instructions, in different parts of the Coteau Rapids on smooth solid rock, as well as on bars formed of boulders and stones, & c., and in very swift currents; they proved efficient everywhere, though not equally so, the accumulations of boulders and stones yielding more readily than the solid rock, which was a very hard limestone; however, after this experiment there can be no doubt but that Mr. Maillefert's new method of blasting rocks under water without drilling, which was most successfully employed for the removal of dangerous sunken rocks in Hell-gate near New York, can also advantageously be made use of for the contemplated improvement in the River St. Lawrence, and is in fact the only available mode of operation.

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This volume was digitized from the collections of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston