46 Tlurleenlli 'Report of the Commiss'miers for making 



length of half a mile, to make room for the canal and the canal 

 bank, has been described in our tliiid Rejiort; and the public 

 road has since been turned from the confined and dangerous 

 situation which it heretofore occupied between Torvaine and the 

 river Ness ; it now passes behind the hill, thus avoiding danger, 

 and shortening the distance, at the expense of a moderate ac- 

 clivity: for these purposes the new road extends nearly to the 

 burn of Doughfonr. 



We shall not rc))eat our former Reports as to the operations 

 which have secured the course of tlie canal from Torvaine to the 

 regulating lock, a distance of nearly three miles, throughout 

 which the canal is complete, and awaits only the admission of 

 water to become navigable. 



The foundations of the regulating lock were of necessity laid 

 close to the river Ness, whose ordinary level was about twenty 

 feet above the necessary excavations for the lock pit : this diffir 

 cult task having been accomplished and the masonry afterwards 

 completed in July 1814, the lock gates ought to have been hung 

 long since; but by an unlucky mistake in freighting vessels from 

 Gainsborough, part of the cast-iron materials for the lower gate 

 is not arrived, though now daily expected. The upper gate is 

 in its place complete, and affords security against the occasional 

 floods of the river Ness, which might otherwise by breaking 

 through the dikes above, rush into the yet unfilled canal, very 

 much to its injury. 



The process of deepening Loch Doughfour and the passage 

 which connects it with Loch Ness, is highly important, and was 

 contemplated with some anxiety until the successful operation of 

 our dredging machine had been ascertained, as mentioned in our 

 last Report. The entrance of I he canal from Loch Doughfour 

 we described to have been then cleared to a sufficient depth for 

 small vessels, and since that the shallows near Castle Spiritual 

 have been the chief scene of operation ; the result of which is 

 that ninety thousand tons of gravel have been lifted and re- 

 moved within the last twelvemonth, and thereby a passage of 

 nine feet depth is now open into Loch Ness. The most im- 

 provable river chaimel was found to be on the west side of the 

 Gravel island, so that it became necessary to remove a part of 

 the point of land on which the ruins of Castle Spiritual will con- 

 tinue to stand close to the brink of the deepened water. 



A depth of nine or even of ten feet will appear very inadequate 

 for the passage of large shipping into Loch Ness ; but not only 

 the channel vyill be more regularly deepened before the dredging 

 machine is removed to the Middle District, but the formation of 

 a dam across the river at the lower end of Loch Doughfour will 



maintain 



