INLAND WATERWAYS—CHISHOLM. 369 
Time fails us for the examination of other important English 
waterways, but attention may be drawn to two railway-controlled 
canals which carry a great deal of traffic, though not with such satis- 
factory results as the Birmingham Canal Navigation. One of these 
is the St. Helens, or Sankey Brook, Canal,’ belonging to the London 
and Northwestern Railway Company. It is more than 6 feet deep, 
and runs from the great chemical and glass manufacturing town of 
St. Helens to the Mersey. In 1898 it carried above 380,000 tons of 
river sand, chemicals, limestone, sugar, and other produce, but at a 
loss to the company of £835. It is difficult to conceive what motive 
the company could have for carrying all this at a loss,.1f in any way 
it could contrive to carry it at a profit. The other is a very remark- 
able and instructive case in more ways than one. It is that of the 
Swansea Canal,? which hes in the valley of the Tawe, and in 163. 
miles ascends 333 feet by means of 36 locks. In spite of these adverse 
circumstances, the canal carried in 1898 192,000 tons at a small profit 
to the railway company. The explanation is found, however, in the 
account of it given in the Returns for 1898, where the canal is de- 
scribed as “ passing through or alongside the various works—copper, 
silver nickel, tin plate, and other works, also collieries, quarries, etc.” 
But the instructiveness of this example does not end here. In 1898 
the goods stated to have been carried by this canal in order of impor- 
tance were coal, ores, and pitwood. The manager. of the Great West- 
ern Railway Company has been good enough to inform me that in 
1905 the total tonnage carried by this canal was only 123,000 tons, 
and that the decrease in traffic was mainly due to the fact that, conse- 
quent upon the provision of rail access to a large colliery company’s 
works, that company’s output, which formerly passed by the canal, 
was now all carried by the Midland Railway, and that it was under- 
stood that the colliery company had disposed of its water-carrying 
plant. The coal at present carried by the canal amounts to less than 
6,000 tons per annum, and I am assured that, as might be expected, 
practically the whole of the canal traffic arises at, or is destined for, 
places in the vicinity of the canal. Now the traflic is carried on at a 
loss, and in this case it is still more difficult to conceive what induce- 
ment the company has to suffer that loss if it can prevent it. 
There can be no question, however, that in some cases it must be the 
interest of the railways to check the development of canal traffic. If 
the facilitating of traffic on a canal belonging to a railway would tend 
@This is the canal shown on our map by five large dots to the north of the 
Mersey. 
6This canal, inadvertently shown on the map by a continuous instead of a 
dotted line, is the western of the two canals converging on Swansea. 
