of its present liabilities,—­at once to commence a series of certain, regular, and satisfactory dividends.”  They accordingly recommended a final assessment of $80 per share, completely to extinguish all liabilities.  This assessment, the 100th since the commencement, was levied in 1817, making a sum total of $600,000, extorted from the long-suffering stockholders.  If to this sum the interest of the various assessments be added, computed to Feb. 1, 1819, the date of the first dividend, the actual cost of each share is found to have been $1,455.25.

The prosperity of the canal property now seemed fully assured.  The first dividend, though only $15, was the promise of golden showers in the near future, and the stock once more took an upward flight.  From 1819 to 1836 were the palmy days of the canal, unvexed with debts, and subject to very moderate expenses for annual repairs and management.

It is difficult to ascertain the whole number of boats employed at any one time.  Many were owned and run by the proprietors of the canal; and many were constructed and run by private parties who paid the regular tolls for whatever merchandise they transported.  Boats belonging to the same parties were conspicuously numbered, like railway cars to-day.  From “Regulations relative to the Navigation of the Middlesex Canal,” a pamphlet published in 1830, it appears that boats were required to be not less than 40 ft. nor more than 75 ft. in length and not less than 9 ft. nor more than 9-1/2 ft. in width.  Two men, a driver and steersman, usually made up the working force; the boats, however, that went up the Merrimac required three men, one to steer, and two to pole.  The Lowell boats carried 20 tons of coal; 15 tons were sufficient freight for Concord; when the water in the Merrimac was low, not more than 6 or 7 tons could be taken up the river.  About 1830 the boatmen received $15 per month.

Lumber was transported in rafts of about 75 ft. long and 9 ft. wide; and these rafts, not exceeding ten in number, were often united in “bands.”  A band of seven to ten rafts required the services of five men, including the driver.  Boats were drawn by horses, and lumber by oxen; and “luggage boats” were required to make two and a half miles an hour, while “passage boats” attained a speed of four miles.  Boats of the same class, and going the same way, were not allowed to pass each other, thus making “racing” impossible on the staid waters of the old canal.  Whenever a boat approached a lock, the conductor sounded his horn to secure the prompt attention of the lock-tender; but due regard was paid to the religious sentiment of New England.  Travelling in the canal being permitted on Sundays, “in consideration of the distance from home at which those persons using it generally are, it may be reasonably expected that they should not disturb those places of public worship near which they pass, nor occasion any noise to interrupt the tranquillity of the day.  Therefore, it is established that no Signal-Horn shall be used or blown on Sundays.”