116 CANALS. 



The southern branch of the canal, starting, as before mentioned, from the 

 summit level, reaches the Barrow at Athy through two double and ten smgle 

 locks. Thence to Bagnalstown on the Barrow Navigation by flat-bottomed 

 barges, carrying a maximum load of 40 tons in winter, and less in summer, 

 in consequence of the condition of the navigation channel of the Barrow. 

 The Grand Canal is peculiar in having been carried at various places 

 through bog for a total distance of 28 miles. The calculation that by so 

 doing embankments would be avoided proved futile, inasmuch as the 

 vicinity of the canal stimulated the trade in peat fuel, and the bog has been 

 cut away in several places to a considerable depth on each side, necessitating 

 considerable outlay in maintenance. The average cost of maintenance was 

 estimated in 1878 (by the Commission on the Board of Works, Ireland),* 

 at ;£"i6,i86 per annum, and the annual receipts at an average of ;^24,033, 

 exceeding, therefore, the out-goings by one-third. The canal in 1889 paid 

 the shareholders £2 per cent, interest per annum, in 1890, £\ iojt., and m 

 1 891 and 1892, £2. In March, 1894, the Dividend was 3^ per cent., in 

 1895 and 1896, £}) per cent, in 1897, 3}^ per cent, and in 1898 and 1899, 

 £d^. per cent, in 1900, ;^3 lOi-. per cent, and in 1901, £"3 per cent In 1891 

 the capital authorised and created by the Company amounted to 

 ^^665,938 145-. ^d. In 1894 the Company was authorised by the Grand 

 Canal Act, 1894, to purchase the Barrow Navigation Company, whose 

 system extended from a junction with the Grand Canal Company at Athy 

 to the tidal way at St. Mullin's, passing through Carlow, Milford, Leighlin- 

 bridge, Bagnalstown, and Graiguenamanagh, and going on to New Ross 

 and Waterford. The purchase was completed on the ist July, 1894, at a 

 cost of ^^30,000. The conversion of the Company's Capital authorised by 

 the Act came into operation on ist January, 1895. The Stock was con- 

 verted into £\o shares, one-half of which (^^332,950) are preference shares, 

 bearing 3 per cent interest, and the remained (;^332,950) ordinary shares, 

 which are entitled to all the profits after the preference shares receive 3 per 

 cent. The Act also authorised the issue of Debenture Stock to an extent 

 not exceeding ;!^85,ooo, of which ;^36,C)00 has now been issued. 



The Barrow Navigation connects the Athy branch of the Grand Canal 

 with the tidal part of the River Barrow below St. 

 The Barrow Mullin's. The length of the Barrow from Athy to 



Navigation. the " Scars " at St. Mullin's, is 43 miles, and has a 



total fall of 169 feet. The river between Athy and 

 St. Mullin's lock is canalized for its entire length. There are 23 locks and 

 22 weirs, the level at Cloghrenan lock (2 miles below Carlow) being main- 

 tained in the canal (which is about 60 chains in length) by the natural fall 

 in the river for that distance. 



An excellent account of this navigation v/as given by Mr. M. B. Mullins, 

 A.M., in his address as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers of 

 Ireland in the year 1859 which is worth quoting as illustrating the history of 

 this waterway : — 



" The river forms the course of this navigation, except in a few instances 

 where short deviations are made. It extends from Athy, in the County of 

 Kildare to the tide water below the rock called the ' Scars,' at St. Mullin's, in 

 the County of Carlow — a distance of 34 miles, nearly 5 miles of which are 



* Report [C. — 2060], 1878, p. xliv. 



