Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 13).djvu/141

eight miles between Dam No. 5 and Cumberland, made in January 1836, was arrived at by adding together the surveys of two distinct parties of engineers. By comparing the estimate submitted in December 1838 with the foregoing, made in January 1836, which included the same distance, it will be observed that although the work on more than one-third of the distance had been completed, the latter estimate was nearly seventy-one per cent in excess of the former. About fifty-seven per cent of the increase was attributed by the chief engineer to the advance in the cost of labor, which was very high. The pecuniary difficulties of the company, the high prices and great difficulty in procuring provisions along the line of the canal, and the want of proper control over the laborers by the civil authorities of the state, were some of the causes contributing to this excess. The remaining fourteen per cent of the increase was stated to be chargeable, mainly, to an increase of quantities found to be necessary in the progress of construction for the security of the canal. The "revised estimate" of Janu-