A. D. 1793. 283 



not permitted to approach London upon the canal fo near as the bor- 

 ders of Middlefcx. The capital ftock of the company was fixed at 

 ^500,000 ; and they were invefted at the fame time with power to 

 raife the further fum of /"i 00,000, if it fliould be found neceflary. 

 [c. 80] 



The courfe of this important canal is 90 miles, and it has 121 locks. 

 It is carried under ground in tunnels at three different places, and goes 

 over the River Colne in an aquedud bridge at Uxbridge. 



A company of fubfcribers, with a capital of ^^400,000, were incorp- 

 orated for the purpofe of making a navigable canal from the River 

 Severn at Shrewfbury, to pafs by Ellefmere, and join the River Merfea 

 at Nctherpool in Chelhire, with feveral collateral cuts, or branches, to 

 various places, [c. 91] 



In the courfe of this, which is commonly called the Ellefmere canal, 

 there is anaquedud bridge confifting of feven arches, and 130 feet high, 

 for conveying the barges over the River Dee. What would the engin- 

 eer fay to this, who ridiculed Brindley's propofal, of making an aque- 

 dud: of only 38 feet high, by the contemptuous appellation of a callle 

 in the air ? 



The city of Gloucefter having a very troublefome and tedious com- 

 munication with the fea, owing to the difficult navigation of the River 

 Severn, a company of fpirited and intelligent individuals fubfcribed a 

 capital of ^140,000 in order to make a canal, fufficient to carry large ■ 

 veflels, between Gloucefter and the mouth of a fmall river called Berk- 

 ley pill ; and they were incorporated, and invefted with the ufual powers. 



[^- 97] 



This canal carries a breadth of about 70 feet with a depth of 1 87 feet ; 



and fhips of above 300 tuns can navigate the whole of its extent, which 

 is level throughout, there being only a lock at each end for preferving 

 the water j fo that it may be called a wet dock of about twenty miles 

 long. 



A company of proprietors were alfo incorporated for carrying on an- 

 other moft important canal, capable of carrying merchant Ihips between 

 the Firth of Clyde and the Atlantic ocean by a cut of nine miles long, 

 and 12 or 15 feet deep, to be made through a narrow neck of land be- 

 tween Loch Crinan and Loch Gilp in Argyle-fliire. Their capital 

 was ;^ 1 20,000, with liberty to add /J'30,000, if neceflary. [c. 104] 

 The canal was executed with a depth of 13 and 14 feet, and with 

 fixteen locks, the whole rife above the high-water level of the fea 

 being 6^ feet. When it is completed, vefl^els from the River Clyde, pre- 

 vented from going down the Firth by a fouth wind, may proceed through 

 the canal to fea without any lofs of time *. It will bring the weft coaft 

 of the Highlands, and the Weftern iflands, in ftiort, all the fifhing fliores, 



* I have heard of at lealt one inftance of a vef- had failed the day before the fouth wind began to 

 fel, detained by a fouth wind, lying at the Tail of blow, made her voyage to Virginia and back again.; 

 the bank near Greenock, while another, which 



N n 2 



