INDUSTRY, INVENTION, COMMERCE 



653 







three canals connecting the basins of the Rhone, 

 Loire, Seine, and Rhine. The canals of France 

 have a total length of 3,000 miles. In Belgium 

 there is the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal, which al- 

 lows large vessels to sail to Ghent from the 

 Scheldt estuary. The chief canals in Germany 

 are the Ludwigs Canal in Bavaria, connecting 

 (through the Main and Regnitz) the Rhine and 

 the Danube; and the Holstein Canal, connect- 

 ing the North Sea and Baltic by means of the 

 Eider. The latter will be superseded by the 

 Great Baltic Canal for sea-going vessels, which 

 is to be constructed at a cost of $40,000,000, 

 starting near the mouth of the Elbe and reach- 

 ing the Baltic near Kiel. In Russia there is 

 canal and river communication between the 

 Caspian and the Baltic, a large part of the route 

 cun>i>ting of the Volga. In Britain one of the 



earliest and most celebrated is the Bridgewater 

 Canal (1761-65), in Lancashire and Cheshire, 

 with a length of thirty-eight miles. In Scot- 

 land there are the Forth and Clyde Canal, 

 thirty-five miles long, joining these two rivers; 

 and the Caledonian, sixty and one-half miles 

 (including lakes), from the Moray Firth on the 

 east coast to Loch Eil on the west, passing 

 through Lpch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy. 

 In the British Islands there is a total length of 

 canal of about 3,000 miles; more than five- 

 sixths being in England. The Manchester Ship 

 Canal, a waterway for ocean-going steamers 

 from the estuary of the Mersey, near Runcorn, 

 to Manchester, through a few locks and partly 

 in the beds of the Mersey and the Irwell, was 

 begun in the latter end of 1887; estimated cost, 

 $26,500,000. 



CANALS 



Tabulation showing the cost and date of construction, length, number 

 principal canals of the United States used for commercial purposes: 



of locks, and navigable depth of the 



* And improvements, t Navigable depth. 



ver Ship CftnaTr connect nnd Long Inland >..m,.i. t.y way of Spuytea 



Duyvil Creek and Harlem River, was opened for traffic on June 17. 1896. and cost about $2 700.000 



