Something of the determination with which Massachusetts, and particularly Boston, waged the struggle for connection with the West, that is to say, for existence, is mirrored in a rather scarce state document which the Society possesses. The “Report of the Commissioners of the State of Massachusetts on the Routes of Canals from Boston Harbor to the Connecticut and Hudson Rivers” (Boston, 1826) conceals, beneath a mass of engineering data, a vivid story of New England's past.