LAWS OF MARYLAND.

87

up the same or any branch thereof as may reach some convenient
point thereon for connecting the eastern and western waters, by a
tunnell through, or an open cut across the dividing ridge between the
same, and thence after crossing the said dividing ridge shall proceed
to the highest steam boat navigation of the Ohio River or of some
one tributary stream thereof in such direction as in the opinion of
the said President and Directors shall be best calculated for the at-

Dec. Ses. 1823

tainment of the end, set forth in the preamble of this act. That the
said President and Directors shall first construct the eastern section
aforesaid out of the capital stock hereinbefore mentioned, and shall
next proceed to construct with all possible dispatch the western sec-
tion thereof, in case the said company shall not begin the said work
within two years after it shall have been formed, or if the work having
been so begun shall not be diligently prosecuted so that one hundred
miles of the said canal with the adequate locks and incidental im-
provements shall not be completed and in fit order for navigation in

Time limited
for construct-
ing.

the term of five years from the commencement of the work, then all
interest of the said company in the navigation and toll shall cease
and determine and their charter shall thereafter be taken to be null
and void; and so in like manner shall the said charter be null and
void if the entire eastern section be not completed in the term of

Forfeiture of
right.

twelve years from the said commencement and should the said com-
pany fail to begin the western section of the said canal in two years
after the term allowed as aforesaid for the completion of the eastern

Western-sec-
tion.

section, or having begun the western section shall fail to complete the
same in six years after such beginning, then all right title and interest
of the said company in the said western section shall cease and deter-
mine, and the several states aforesaid, shall have full authority to
incorporate another company for the completion of such section or
to complete the same in any other mode which they may deem expe-
dient; and if after the completion of the said canal and locks, the
President and Directors shall fail to keep the same in repair for

Time limited.

twelve months at any time, then in like manner their interest in the
navigation and tolls shall cease and their charter shall be forfeited.
21. And be it enacted, That the right to the waters of the river
Potomac for the purpose of any lateral canal or canals which the
State of Maryland or Virginia, may authorise to be made in con-
nection with the said canal is reserved to the said states respectively;
That a similar right is reserved to the State of Pennsylvania in rela-
tion to the rivers and streams within the territory of that state, the
waters of which may be used in supplying the western sec-
tion of the said canal, that the government of the United States,
shall retain the power to extend the said canal in or through the
District of Columbia, on either or both sides of the river Potomac;

Forfeiture.
Repairs.

Lateral canal
states rights
reserved.

Provided, that before this act shall take effect, the Congress of the
United States shall authorise the states of Maryland and Virginia, or
either of them to take and continue a canal from any point of the
above named canal or the termination thereof, through the territory
of the District of Columbia or any part thereof to the territory of
the said states or either of them in any direction they may deem pro-
per, upon the same terms and conditions and with all the rights,
privileges and powers of every kind whatsoever, that the company
incorporated by this act, have to make the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal; And provided also, that in taking or extending such lateral ca-

Proviso's.