'*6 STATISTICAL SURVEY 



in this refpeft, as commodious as any in the world; the 

 beneficial confequences of this canal being feen, and 

 confidered, is a ftronger elucidation of this matter, 

 than any words can afford. Whilft I am on the fub- 

 jeft of canals, it may not be improper to mention, that 

 the good effefts of the canal from Lough Neagh to 

 Belfaft are, in a great meafure, loft by the manage- 

 ment of that part of it, which runs from Lifburn to 

 Belfaft. The original defect feems to have been, from 

 the idea of making the river Lagan navigable, which, 

 having a fall of fo many feet, and being a mountain 

 river, and, of courfe, fubject to great floods, is the moft 

 unfit that can be imagined for the purpofes of naviga- 

 tion, being a great part of the year rendered fo, by the 

 burfting of its banks, whofe breaches cannot be re- 

 paired without draining a level, and interrupting the 

 pafTage of boats; befides the expence incurred by con- 

 tinual repairs. Had a canal been executed between 

 the towns above mentioned, without any connexion 

 with the river, and with the fame fkill as the part lat- 

 terally finifhed, the benefits would have been great in- 

 deed, and the communication certain and fpeedy; but, 

 as matters are fituated at prefent, more time is con- 

 fumed in the paflage up the river Lagan, when there 

 is a pafTage, than would be fufficient for the whole, on 

 a well executed and level cut. Leaving this naviga- 

 tion, therefore, in the unfinifhed ftate, in which it is, 

 rauft be not only a public lo/s, but a lofs to the pro- 

 prietor; 



