George Holt Henshaw

Under the tuition of Andrews he made such rapid progress that he was invited by Alfred Barrett, chief engineer of the Board of Works of Canada, to enter the Government service.

[3] In 1849, Henshaw was offered the post of assistant engineer on the construction of the James River and Kanawha Canal, Virginia, and in charge of the divisional drawing offices.

On the chart is written,[5] that the diagram represents a plan of organization, and exhibits the division of administrative duties and shows the number and class of employee's engaged in each department, and is dated September 1855.

The chart further explains that the diagram is compiled from the latest monthly report and indicates about the average number of employees of each class engaged in the Operating Department of the railroad company.

Henshaw started with a general introduction about the importance of hydrological engineering works, naming Holland as modern example of a "whole country reclaimed from the sea".

[6] Henshaw stipulates that to secure permanently navigable channel, it is not enough to protect banks or bluffs from erosion, because that "can have no effect beyond preventing a certain amount of sediment being added to that already encumbering the stream; the old varying conditions still exist over the spacious bottom, and in some way these must be altered.