THE WELLAND CANALS: THE GROWTH OF MR MERRITTS DITCH. Styran, Roberta M. and Robert R. Taylor with John N. Jackson. Erin (Ont.), The Boston Mills Press, 1988. 168pp, paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-919783-63-5. CIP Grades 12 and up Reviewed by Joan McGrath Volume 16 Number 6 1988 November It is surprising how little most Canadians know of the history of the Welland Canal, one of the few great ship canals of the world. The first vessels sailed through the First Canal in 1829, and since that time, the busy waterway has for the most part attracted public attention only on the rare occasions of trouble or damage to the system. The present excellent picture history tells the proud and often dramatic story of the canal from the early visionary days of "Mr. Merritts Ditch," a time when canal networks were prime methods of heavy goods delivery. But technology was even then accelerating. Planners who had had sailing vessels in mind were obliged to adapt to steamship traffic, which in turn gave way to diesel. Plans, drawings, romanticized paintings and early photographs as well as more recent photos and diagrams illustrate the canal in all its phases of development and capture likenesses of the dreamers who first conceived and designed the canal. An appendix lists statistical details of the First to Third canals and the Welland Ship Canal (Fourth Canal), completed 1932-33. Useful in any senior study of transportation systems. Notes and index included. Joan McGrath, Toronto Board of Education, Toronto, Ont.