CANALS. 113 



This navigation is, practically, a series of lakes joined by canal cuts. As 



Ballinamorp designed it is useless except for barges drawn by 



steam power ; the intermittent series of small lakes 



and Ballyconnell through which it is conducted, making horse haulage 

 Canal. impossible. As a connecting link with Lough Erne 



it might, however, be available whenever the improved industrial conditions 

 of the country warrants steam traction ; in which case the Grand Canal 

 Company's boats might avail of it, their present terminus being Carrick-on- 

 Shannon. It unites Lough Erne to the Shannon at the town of Leitrim, 

 Its total length is 38 miles 46 chains. The size of the locks is 82 feet long 

 by 16 feet 6 inches broad, with a depth of water on the cills when originally 

 constructed of 5 feet 6 inches. The canal was made by the Board of 

 Works for the purpose both of navigation and drainage between 1846 and 

 1859, at a cost of ,^228,652, of which sum ;^30,ooo has been repaid by the 

 adjoining counties. The remainder, ;^I98,652, has been a free grant from 

 the public exchequer. 



The works were handed over to two bodies of trustees — navigation and 

 drainage trustees — in i860, both bodies having taxing powers for mainten- 

 ance purposes. No railway runs parallel to this canal, nor competes 

 directly with it for trafhc, but there is direct railway communication from 

 Dublin to Carrick-on-Shannon, at the western end, and from Dublin, Bel- 

 fast, and Dundalk, to Belturbet Junction and Clones, not far from the 

 eastern end. Lord Monck's Commission reported as follows on the state of 

 this navigation in 1882 : — • 



" The canal is now out of repair and quite unnavigable. The receipts for 

 five years ending in 1880 were 'nil' The annual expenditure on naviga- 

 tion account, apparently for lock-keepers' wages, was about ' £%o' It is 

 alleged that the navigation was originally ' badly designed, badly made, and 

 passed over to the trustees in an unfit state.' Evidence has been given to 

 us that the navigation works were, up to 1865, kept by the trustees ' in the 

 order in which they received them ; ' but that since that time, there being 

 no trade, nothing has been done to keep them in repair. The canal was 

 navigable, and no more, when given up by the Commissioners of Public 

 Works, and there being no traffic worth mentioning upon it, was allowed to 

 go from bad to worse until it has reached its present condition of absolute 

 uselessness as a navigation. We have been informed by competent engi- 

 neers that by the expenditure of £j,OQO or ;^8,ooo, the canal could again be 

 made navigable, but when it was navigable no use was made of it, and thf:; 

 trustees advertised in vain for persons to establish boats upon it. In 1865, 

 whilst the canal was still in working order, the Grand Jury of the County of 

 Cavan 



" ' Expressed their unanimous sense of the utter inutility of this navigation, 

 and earnestly hoped that the Commissioners of Public Works would not con- 

 tinue to exercise the power vested in them of oblig-ing the trustees to main- 

 tain (save so far as might be necessary for drainage purposes) any of the 

 works connected with this navigation, which had been in operation for some 

 years, and had been fully proved to be totally valueless to the county which 

 nad been so heavily taxed for it.' 



" The evidence submitted to us goes to show that the restoration of the 

 navigation would be of little benefit to the public, that there would be no 

 profitable traffic upon it, and, further, that there would be a great disinclina- 



I 



