40 TIdrfeenlh Report of the Commissioners for making 



receipt of tolls, which, according to the best information wehav9 

 been able to }3rocuie, may probably produce forty thousand 

 pounds per annum, whon the benefit or the canal pas>^a<i;e shall 

 have become thoroughly understood ; but even the present loss, 

 resulting from delay, is not inionsiderable, because the number 

 of labourers and workmen is diniinishec!, while the expenditure 

 on management and superintendence remains unaltered. The 

 degree in which this disproportion takes place, niay be estimated 

 bv comparing the nrmibor of labourers and workmen now em-r 

 ployed, with the highest average number in any former year ; and 

 the average number in the last twelvemonth having l)een four 

 hundred and ninety, shows a decrease of four hundred and sixty- 

 nine in nine h.undred and fiftv-nine, or almost ha.lf. The largest 

 number we ever employed was during the three months of June, 

 July, and August ISIl, averagir.g at fourteen hundred and four, 

 Even this number was not felt as an inconvenience by our superr 

 intendents, not even at Corpach, where the extraordinary accu- 

 mulation mostly existed, in consequence of a depression of trade 

 at that time, and a consequent stagnation in all brandies of 

 employment at Glasgow. 



A comparison of the sum of money then and nov.- pxpended 

 in labour, gives nearly the same result. In our ninth Report 

 the sum appears to have been fifty tiiouf.and pounds, in our pre- 

 sent Report thirty thon-^and ; which a^jain will be much di- 

 minished in our next Report, unless a larger grant th:'.n usual 

 shall be assigned to this service in the present session of parliar 

 ment. 



This will 1)6 understood, w!icn we state, tliat after it I)ecam0 

 evident to us in the year 1814, that oak timl)er of proper dimen- 

 sions for the posts and bars of loch gates, was no longer pror 

 curable on any terms, and we had thereupon determined to ap-r 

 ply cast iron to that purpose, — no time was lost in einployiug 

 skilful persons in forming models for this new application of 

 what from its many a'.id increasing uses in this country, may be 

 called a British material ; and after proper experiments by th^ 

 modellers and iron founders, thev became al)le to furnish a sup- 

 ply from tiie iron-works at Butterley in Derbyshire, some part of 

 ■which has already been used at Clachnacharry, and from Pont- 

 cysvlte in Denbighshire, for the Corpach district of the canal, 

 of which none is actaaliy arrived, though a freight is now daily 

 expected. 



Thus the respective iron foundries being now fairly in action, 

 can furnish any quriutitv as soon as required; and the laliour 

 and time necessary for planking and hanging the gates, after the 

 arrival of the cast-iron work material>?, makes it desirable to us, 

 ior the regular progress and uniform completion of all the canal 



works. 



