Decline of Canals 305 



level ; and certain of the works thus carried out were, in their 

 day, deservedly regarded as of considerable engineering 

 importance. The Chirk aqueduct, which carries the Ellesmere 

 Canal across a yoo-feet stretch in the Ceriog valley, and at a 

 height of 70 feet above the level of the river, and the Pont- 

 cysyllte aqueduct, 1007 feet long, which takes the same canal 

 over the river Dee, are spoken of by Phillips, in his " General 

 History of Inland Navigation " (1803), as " among the boldest 

 efforts of human invention in modern times." Elsewhere the 

 canals had to pass along high embankments or through deep 

 cuttings. Canal tunnels of up to three miles in length were 

 not infrequent, though some of these were made so narrow 

 in the interests of economy that they had no towing-path, 

 the boats being taken through by men who lay on their backs 

 on the cargo, and pushed against the sides of the tunnel with 

 their feet. Alternatively, it was sometimes possible to avoid 

 rising ground or deep valleys, necessitating locks, by making 

 wide detours in preference to taking the shortest route, as a 

 railway would do. Thus the distance by canal between Liver- 

 pool and Wigan is thirty-four miles, as compared with a 

 distance of only nineteen by rail. From Liverpool to Leeds 

 is 128 miles by canal and eighty by rail. These windings 

 made the canal compare still more unfavourably with the 

 railway when it was considered that the speed of transport 

 on the former was only about two and a half miles an hour, 

 without counting delays at the locks ; and of these there are, 

 between Liverpool and Leeds, no fewer than ninety-three. 



But just because these engineering works had been so bold 

 and so costly, or left so much to be desired in regard to length 

 of route, and just because so many physical difficulties had had 

 to be overcome, it may well have happened that when what 

 was universally considered a better means of transport was 

 presented, general doubts arose as to the wisdom and prac- 

 ticability of reconstructing, in effect, the whole canal system 

 to enable it to compete better with the railways in catering 

 for that through traffic for which the canals themselves were 

 so ill adapted. 



Supplementing these considerations as to the physical 

 configuration of the country is the further fact that in the 

 colliery districts the keeping of the canals in working order 

 involves great trouble, incessant watchfulness and very 



