110 CANALS. 



Canal Company. It passes through County Dubhn, between Counties 

 Kildare and Meath, and through Counties Westmeath and Longford to Tar- 

 nionbarry, where it joins the Shannon. In pursuance of the Act 58 Geo. 

 III., c. 35, the canal on being finished was handed over to a new company in 

 1822, by which it contmued to be worked and managed till 1845, subject, 

 however, to the supervision of a Board of Control, required under the same 

 Act, to be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant. It was then purchased by 

 the Midland Great Western Railway Company, under the Act 8 and 9 Vic, 

 c. 119 (local). The annual cost of the maintenance of the works was esti- 

 mated in 1878, at ;^4,650, and die annual receipts at ^^"8,530. 



The Lagan Navigation connects Belfast with Lough Neagh. Its length 

 is 25 miles 47 chains ; six miles of which are river. 

 The Lagan and the remainder canal. The size of the smallest 



Navigation. lock is 69 feet 6 inches long by 16 feet broad. The 



depth of water on the cills of the locks varies from 

 7 feet in wet weather to 5 feet in dry, and on one or two occasions within the 

 last ten years has been only 4 feet 6 inches. The work which was begun 

 about the year 1/53, but not completed till the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury, is in the hands of a private company who, under the provisions of 6 and 

 7 William IV., cap. 107, pay a rent for it to the Government of ;^300 a year. 

 It was stated by the Secretary of the Company in 1882* to be in perfect 

 repair and working order with traffic sufficient, on an average of the last 

 five years, to pay one and-a-half per cent on the capital invested after pro- 

 viding for the cost of maintenance. For the purpose of the Lagan Naviga- 

 tion the water has not been shut up, nor the drainage power of the country 

 interfered with in the district through which it passes. " For the purposes 

 of through traffic, as at present carried on, into Lough Neagh, it is necessary 

 that the water in the laJ^e at the mouth of the canal (which, however, does 

 not derive its supply from the lake) should be maintained at what is called 

 l)y the witnesses who were examined ' Summer level,' that is to say, at a 

 depth of not less than 8 feet on the upper cill of Toome lock ; but we shall 

 observe on this point the depth of the lake when reporting on the naviga- 

 tion of Lough Neagh. As far as the Lagan proper is concerned, the drain- 

 age of the country is in no way injuriously affected by it, the navigation is 

 now profitably utilised, and there is no further outlay of public money neces 

 sary to put it into order or to maintain it."t 



The " Upper Bann Navigation " is something of a misnomer, as it is 



Th*» Tin p TiH applied to that section of the Blackwater river which 



"^ lies below the point of its junction with the Ulster 



Lower Bann Canal at Moy, and connects that canal with Lough 



Navigations. Neagh. The distance from Moy to Lough Neagh is 



by water, 7 miles and 35 chains. There are no locks or artificial obstructions 



-on this part of the Blackwater. The navigation is maintained by the 



Upper Bann Navigation Trustees, out of funds raised from their entire 



district by local taxation. 



The Lower Bann Navigation connects Coleraine with Lough Neagh. Its 

 length is 32 miles 32 chains, of which 3 miles 12 chains axe lake, 26 miles 

 .40 chains river, and the remainder canal. The size of the locks is 130 feet 



* To Lord Monck's Commission. f Report of Lord Monck's Commission, 



