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two  being  practically  an  extension  of  the  canal)
is  to  furnish  slack- water  navigation  through-
out the  year.  The  cost  of  that  at  Henry  (§400,000)
was  defrayed  by  direct  appropriation  from  the
State  treasury.  Copperas  Creek  dam  cost  $410,831,
of  which  amount  the  United  States  Government
paid  $62,360.  The  General  Government  also  con-
structed a  dam  at  La  Grange  and  appropriated
funds  for  the  building  of  another  at  Kampsville
Landing,  with  a  view  to  making  the  river  thor-
oughly navigable  the  year  round.  The  beneficial
results  expected  from  these  works  have  not  been
realized  and  their  demolition  is  advocated.
History.  —  The  early  missionaries  and  fur-
traders  first  directed  attention  to  the  nearness  of
the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Illinois.
The  project  of  the  construction  of  a  canal  was
made  the  subject  of  a  report  by  Albert  Gallatin,
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  1808,  and,  in  1811,  a
bill  on  the  subject  was  introduced  in  Congress  in
connection  with  the  Erie  and  other  canal  enter-
prises. In  1822  Congress  granted  the  right  of
way  across  the  public  lands  "for  the  route  of  a
canal  connecting  the  Illinois  River  with  the
south  bend  of  Lake  Michigan,"  which  was  fol-
lowed five  years  later  by  a  grant  of  300, 000  acres
of  land  to  aid  in  its  construction,  which  was  to
be  undertaken  by  the  State  of  Illinois.  The
earliest  surveys  contemplated  a  channel  100  miles
long,  and  the  original  estimates  of  cost  varied
between  $639,000  and  $716,000.  Later  surveys
and  estimates  (1833)  placed  the  cost  of  a  canal
forty  feet  wide  and  four  feet  deep  at  $4,040,000.
