38 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



wise divided into thirty-six shares, which were called " the king's 

 shares," as the other twenty-nine were; " the adventurers," who 

 were incorporated by letters patent, in the year 1619, by the namti 

 of " The New River Company," and the government of the con- 

 cern lodged in their hands, In the year 1/66, one of the king's 

 shares was sold by public auction for 4,400/. and in 1770, another 

 king's share, or one seventy second part of the whole, was pur- 

 chased at a public auction for 6,700/. The corporation consists of 

 a governor, deputy-governor, treasurer, and twenty-six directors, a 

 collector and his assistant, a surveyor and his deputy, collectors, and 

 workmen. The canal called " The New River*' is carried over two 

 vales, in wooden frames, or troughs, lined with lead ; in its course 

 are forty-three sluices, and over it are two hundred and fifteen 

 bridges. In some parts it is conveyed through subterranean 

 passages. 



Sir Hugh Middleton left by his will some of his shares to the 

 Goldsmiths* company, to be divided among its poor members. 



This adventurous baronet was possessed of mines in Cardigan- 

 shire, which he is said to have worked to so great advantage, as to 

 have cleared two thousand pounds a month for several years toge- 

 ther, which enabled him to bring the New River water to London ; 

 but Mr. Pennant says that he expended the whole on that great 

 object, and was so reduced, as to support himself by becoming an 

 hireling surveyor. One of his female descendants, being in very 

 reduced circumstances, was, not many years ago, voted a small an- 

 nuity by the corporation of London, in consequence of a petition 

 which she presented. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



America is extremely well watered by rivers not only for the 

 support of animal life, and all the advantages of fertility, but 

 for the convenience of trade, and the intercourse of the distant 

 inhabitants by water. In North America, the great river MIS- 

 SISSIPPI runs chiefly from north to south, receiving in its course 

 many large rivers, scarcely inferior to the Rhine or the Danube, 

 navigable almost from their sources, and laying open the inmost 

 recesses of this part of the continent. Near the heads of these are 

 extensive lakes of fresh water, which have a communication with 



