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Show ( "which which ) men would push with 210 poles or propel by oars , or have dragged by horses and mules ; sometimes , in very ( shal- shal ) low - ( water vater ) , ( wading -wading wading ) alongside and pushing the boats onward themselves . At places ( where ivhere ) progress ( oa oil ) the stream was impracticable the vessel would be unloaded and a ( 'portage portage 'portage' portage ) made , till the navigator had got beyond the difficult place , and then a reshipment ( would ivould ) be made of the merchandise into some other boat beyond , or into the same boat , which unloaded , and drawing less water than ( -before before before ) , could be got across the place that in a loaded state had stopped it . " After referring to the fact that the impediments to navigation , which existed when the river was in its natural state , had been ( "removed removed ) by artificial navigation , " so that freight and passengers are now easily transported in boats over the river , the court says , at page 440 : ( "It It ) is said , ( however hoivever ) , that although the Fox River may now be considered a highway for commerce , over which trade and ( travel tnavel ) are , or may be , conducted in the ordinary modes of trade and travel on water , it was not so in its natural state , and , therefore , is not a navigable water of the United States within the purview of the decisions referred to / * The Court then refers to the fact that , notwithstanding the difficulties encountered in navigating the river in its natural state , it ( had -had had ) actually been used for commerce , and says that ( "capability capability ) of use by the public for purposes of transportation and commerce affords the true criterion of the navigability of a river , rather than the extent and manner of that use . " A more complete excerpt from the opinion of the Court in this case has already been quoted . At ( page -page page ) 442 of the ( opinion opinioh ) in The Montello , the Court quotes the language of Chief Justice ( Shaw Shaiv ) in Rowe et al . , V . The Granite Bridge Corporation , 21 Pickering 344 , wherein Chief Justice Shaw said that it is not ( "every every ) small creek in which a fishing skiff or gunning canoe can be made to float at high water which is deemed navigable , but , in order to give it the character of a navigable stream , it must be generally and commonly useful to some purpose of trade or agriculture . " In a later Massachusetts case , to wit , Attorney General v . Woods , 108 Mass . 436 , the defendant sought to construe this language of Chief Justice Shaw very much as Complainant seeks to construe it in the case at bar . After |