368 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
Such general comparisons throw no light whatever on the question. 
It will be more profitable to look at the facts relating to some of the 
individual navigations. 
That which carried by far the greatest amount in that year was 
the Birmingham Canal Navigation, a miserable narrow-boat system 
of waterways which wind about and rise and fall in South Stafford- 
shire and the neighboring parts of adjoining counties. But it is 
their situation that explains their preeminence, the large towns and 
the mines and quarries of this district supplying and requiring large 
quantities of bulky produce, such as is indicated in the following 
table, one column of which is taken from the returns already cited 
and the second kindly supplied to me by the clerk to the Navigation: 
Thousands of tons carried by the Birmingham Canal Navigation. 
1898. 1905. 
COB a ene ahs eee ee te Se ce a ne ener ate 4,543 3,786 
Generali erchiamdise: 2-2 e 2 tsk ee ee Se Be Es ae ee en 1,340 1,336 
IBTICKS S22 Sos ss ase a a Ns Se shee se oe ee Se een 846 612 
hoadhnaterialstandimanunes=.- csi asses ae Stee eee ree a ee eee een 655 769 
Pr OSS oe eee Re Pe Se oe ee ae 2 ee 2 rg ee ee 523 434 
ironstonevand (cinders +S- 2222522 a ae eee 478 411 
Ser GS = 2S Ree re ee Ft re ee es ee ee Sa eae eae ee ee 139 135 
Inimevanclimes t O71 C= eee eee ae nee a ee ae en ne eee Se eee eee 103 63 
8,627 | 7,546 
The “ general merchandise,” I am informed, is broadly composed 
of grain, timber, and manufactured goods generally. 
The waterway ranking next after the Birmingham Canal Naviga- 
tion in respect of the volume of its traffic is the Aire and Calder 
Navigation. Here we have a much better waterway, throughout 
above 6 feet in depth, with much fewer locks, and, moreover, with 
large quantities of one bulk commodity (coal) to collect at or near 
its upper terminals, Leeds and Wakefield, and discharge into ships 
at its lower end, Goole. This trade has also been greatly promoted 
by the ingenious contrivances for dealing with this commodity 
devised by the engineer to the canal, Mr. W. H. Bartholomew, 
M. Inst. C. E. The coal is carried in so-called compartment boats, 
really segments of a boat, each carrying 35 tons of coal, and formed 
into a train which is preceded by an empty segment shaped like the 
prow of a boat, all drawn by a tug. On the arrival of the train at 
Goole each compartment is hoisted up in order that its contents may 
be tipped into the hold of a ship, and on the return of the train the 
separate compartments are hauled out of the water on rails to be 
taken to the collieries for refilling. 
