ing a navigable canal from Mortonia to a point near the head of the Potomac, paying most of the expense from his private means. In about two years the canal was constructed to a point above the "Great Falls." Although this advanced navigation little more than ten miles, it was very beneficial by bringing down to Mortonia a great flow of water with all the fall needed to run many mills, as at the upper edge of Mortonia the canal was more than thirty feet above the surface of the river. From this point it was conducted down to tide level by a series of locks. This section of the canal first completed offered much greater difficulties that any section of equal length subsequently constructed, as twenty locks were needed in ten miles. The mills at Mortonia contained not only great saws for cutting planks from logs, but smaller saws and lathes for cutting timber into all shapes for all sorts of manufactures. Thus, by the aid of water-power handles were made for all sorts of tools, hubs and other parts of wagons, furniture, etc. Furniture could be shipped to England and Holland and sold at a good profit, the separate pieces, packed closely, to be put together, polished, and painted or varnished by workmen in
