and mcaniahiiiig the Caledonian Canal. 49 



Inindred yards is as deep as the summer level of the water in 

 Loch Oich ; for the next five hundred yards the ground is 

 opened, but the excavation is not so nuich advanced. At the 

 termination of this twelve hundred vards, is the summit of the 

 Great Vallev, wliich is occupied by the Caledonian canal and by 

 lakes 'Toni Inverness to Fort William. Here for three hundred 

 yards in length the ground is not vet opened; but from thence to 

 Loch Locliine, nearly a mile, there is no interval in the excava- 

 tion, which in this space averages at about eleven feet in depth. 

 In the deep cutting at the summit of the land, horse-labour will 

 be recpiired for removing the earth, and a wood-framed stable 

 with a barn have been erected, sufficient to contain eight horses 

 and a store of provender. 



Between Loch Oich and Loch Lochie one- third part of the 

 excavation is finished. 



CoRPACH District. We have had occasion to state in our 

 former Reports, that the level of Loch Lochie will be raised se- 

 veral feet vvhea the canal at the head of the loch is ready for 

 n-^e, and the regulating lock which is to be placed there, has been 

 completed, and its gates hung. The river Lochie, which issues 

 from the lower end of the lake of the same nause, will tJieii be 

 turned into the new bed prepared for it at Mucomer, and the 

 regulating lock adjacent to the present bed of the river will serve 

 to dam up tlie passage of water and raise the present level of the 

 lake. 



This lock is in a state readv to receive its gates ; at a short 

 ^listaiice below it, the south bank of the canal is placed in the 

 bed of the river Lochie, which is made to take a new passage 

 outside the canal bank ; but the excavation necessarv for this 

 purpose at the confluence of the rivers Spean and Lochie, has 

 not produced earth enough to finish the southern bank of the 

 canal, which for the space of two hundred yards remains to be 

 raised eight feet in height by means of earth brought across the 

 canal from the high ground north of it ; and this is now in 

 operation. The outside of the canal bank which is washed by 

 the river, required some protection, which has been afforded by 

 a coating of rubble cut out of the bottom of the canal. The 

 rocky nature of the ground was indeed the reason for placing the 

 canal in the former bed of the river. From this place through 

 the farms of East-Moy, West-Moy, and Eracht, two miles in 

 length, the canal is completely finished, comprehending the back 

 drain for intercepting the mountain brooks, the inlet of five 

 arches at Moy, the outlet, and the masonry abutments of Moy 

 bridge. 



The last and easy operation of puddling, or rendering water- 

 tight the banks of the canal over the great acjueduct oi Lov is 

 ' Vul. 4S. No. 2 1 9. July 1 8 1 G. U liow 



