Oxford,.. 1803 15 126 8.4 1790/91 269 2.9 30-16 5 From the Loughborough basin to the Soar, which has been rendered navigable as far as Leicester. Number of shares, 545; cost, £140; price in 1824, £330. From Leicester to Market Harborough. It has 4 tunnels, 1056, 990, 880 and 286, in the whole 3212, yards in length. Number of shares, 1895; cost, £83 10s.; price in 1824, £82. From the Trent, near Sawley, to Loughborough. No.shares, 70; cost, £142 178. 8d.; price in 1824, £4000. From the Mersey and Irwell navigation to Bolton. The locks have been reconstructed and enlarged. Number of shares, 477; originally, £250; price in 1824, £112. A continuation of the Forth and Clyde canal. This canal is remarkable for the extent of its railways and inclined planes. Number of shares, 2409; cost, £100; price in 1824, £198. It has, besides, a loan of £43,526, at an interest of 5 per cent. From a branch of the Ellesmere canal to Newtown. Number of shares, 700; originally, £100; price in 1824, £71. From the river Neath, at the Giant's Grave, to the Aberdare canal, at Abernant. It serves for the transportation of copper and lead ore from Cornwall to Glamorganshire. Number of shares, 247; cost, £107 10s.; price in 1824, £333. From the Thames and Severn canal to the Wilts and Berks. From the Trent, at Nottingham, to the Cromford canal, near Langley bridge. From Melton Mowbray to Oakham. Number of shares, 522; cost, £130; price in 1824, £50. From the Coventry canal to the river Isis at Oxford, and a part of the grand line between Liverpool and London. It has 3 aqueducts of very considerable magnitude, a tunnel at Newbold 125 yards long and 12 feet wide, and one at Fenny Compton 1188 yards long and 93 feet wide. It rises, from the level of the Coventry canal, in 45 miles, to the summit at Marston Tolls, 74 feet 1 inch, by 12 locks; and descends, from the summit at Claydon, in 35 miles, to the Isis, 1954 feet, by 30 locks. It has 188 stone and brick bridges. It cost £178,648 stock, besides £130,000 loan, above half of which has been paid off. Number of shares, 1786; originally, £100; price in 1824, £780. Depth. From the Manchester, Ashton and Oldham canal, at Duckenfield, to the Chapel Milton basin. It has a railway 6 miles long. It passes the Mersey, by a bridge 100 feet high, of 3 arches, each of 60 feet span. Number of shares, 2400; cost, £77; price in 1824, £94. From the river Arun, near Little Hampton, to the bay connected with Portsmouth harbor. Number of shares, 2520; cost, £50; price in 1824, £25. From the Calder and Hebble navigation to the Huddersfield canal. The last link, near London, of the chain connecting that city and Liverpool. It commences at Paddington, from the Grand Junction canal, and meets the Thames at Limehouse, descending, by 12 locks, to a basin communicating with a ship lock. The locks have double chambers, which are estimated to make a saving of one third of the usual quantity of water. It has 2 tunnels, one at Maida Hill, 370 yards long, the other under Islington, 900 yards. Number of shares, 12,294; cost, £40 10s.; price in 1824, £49 10s. From the river Ure, at Milby, to Ripon. From the Bridgewater canal, in the town of Manchester, to the Calder and Hebble navigation, at Sowerby bridge. It has 49 locks, 8 aqueducts, a tunnel of 70 yards in length, and several reservoirs. Number of shares, 5631; cost, £85; price in 1824, £94. From Dublin, in a westward disection, to the Shannon, at Tasmonbarry, nearly parallel to the Dublin canal, and about 10 miles distant from it. Its greatest elevation above the sea is 307 feet, to which it ascends from Dublin by 26 locks, and descends to the Shannon by 15 locks. 5 From the Mersey and Irwell navigation, at Fiddler's Ferry, to Sutton Heath mines. It has 10 locks, and also a tunnel, near St. Helen's. It was the first canal constructed in England. From the river Tamar, at Calstock, to Tavistock. It has a tunnel at Morwellham, 460 feet below the surface. This tunnel led to the discovery of a copper-mine. Its boats are 15 feet in length and 5 in breadth. Number of shares, 350; originally, £100; price in 1824, £150. From the Thames, at Gravesend, to the river Medway. Number of shares, 2670; cost, £42 9s. 5d.; price in 1824, £26. This canal has loans to a large amount. From the Stroudwater canal to the Thames and Isis navigation. The boats are of 70 tons burthen, being 80 feet long and 5 broad. It has a tunnel at Sapperton, 250 feet below the top of the hill of rock under which it passes. The bottom of this tunnel is an inverted arch. From the Warwick and Napton canal, near Warwick, to the Digbeth branch of the old Birmingham canal. It has a tunnel at Fazeley 300 yards in length. It has 32 locks. From the Warwick and Birmingham to the Oxford canal. Number of shares, 980; originally, £100; in 1824, £215. From the river Wey, near Godalming, to the north branch of the Arun river navigation. Number of shares, 905; cost, £110; price in 1824, £25. From the Kennet and Avon canal, at Semington, to the Thames and Isis navigation. From the Severn, at Diglis, below Worcester, to the Birmingham and Fazeley canal, at Farmer's bridge. From a detached part of the Fazeley canal, at Huddlesford, to the Birmingham canal, at Wolverhampton. The boats are of 18 tons burthen. It has 28 locks. The works near Yarmouth open an inland navigation in two directions; one 30 miles, by the Yare, the other 20 miles, by the Wave ney, without a lock. The river Yare discharges at Yarmouth, about 30 miles below Norwich, but the navigation is obstructed by shoals and shifting sands at its mouth. To avoid these obstructions, the river is to be made navigable for seaborne vessels from Norwich to a place 20 miles lower down the river, called Reedham Ferry, where a new cut of 24 miles is to be made across the marshes, to join the river Waveney at St. Olave's bridge, whence the water communication proceeds by a small stream (Oulton Dyke) and two lakes (Oulton Broad and Lothing), from the latter connected with the sea by a channel 700 yards long and 40 feet wide, with a sea-lock 50 feet wide in the clear and 24 feet deep, for the purpose of admitting sea-borne vessels. Oulton Dyke and Oulton Broad are to be deepened. The lock constructed at the outlet of lake Lothing makes an artificial harbor, the first that has been formed in England. This lock has folding gates pointing both landward and seaward, so as to admit of vessels passing in or out at any time of tide, and whether the water be higher on the outside or inside. The harbor covers about 200 acres, the whole contents of which it is proposed, occasionally, to let off at low water, to keep open the channel from the sea. AMERICAN CANALS. It is proposed to give a more particular description of the American canals under the article Inland Navigation. In the mean time, a very general enumeration will be here made of the principal works of this kind already completed or in progress, which will show the astonishing extent to which canal navigation has been opened in the U. States, during the short period, now (1829) only 13 or 14 years, since these works began to be undertaken upon a large scale. It will appear, from the following outline, that not less than 2500 miles of canal are constructed, or in the progress of execution in the U. States, and will probably soon be completed, making a liberal allowance for a suspension of some of the works projected and commenced. The extent of canal in the U. States will soon equal that in Great Britain. The canals constructed and now in progress in the state of Pennsylvania have been estimated at a length of 900 miles; very nearly equal to that of the canals of France, but doubtless inferior in, the style and durability of execution. The Welland canal, in Canada, is intended for opening a sloop navigation between lakes Erie and Ontario. It is not completed. The Middlesex canal opens a boat navigation between Boston and the Merrimack river, and runs 28 or 29 miles, in a northwesterly direction, from its out let into the harbor of Boston, in the town |