IH'KK's CANAL To 11UNOMN. 391 



Whilst the works were in full progress, which 

 during several years, from three to four hundred men 

 were regularly employed upon them, divided into gangs 

 of about fifty, over each of which was appointed a 

 captain and setter-out of the works. One who visited 

 the canal while in progress thus writes to the ' St. 

 James's Chronicle,' under date July 1st, 17G5 : "I sur- 

 veyed the Duke's men for two hours, and think the 

 industry of bees or labour of ants is not to be compared 

 to them. Each man's work seems to depend on and be 

 connected with his neighbour's, and the whole posse 

 appeared as I conceive did that of the Tyrians when 

 they wanted houses to put their heads in at Carthage." 

 At Stretford the visitor found "four hundred men at 

 work, putting the finishing stroke to about two hundred 

 yards of the canal, which reached nearly to the Mersey, 

 and which, on drawing up the floodgates, was to receive 

 a proper quantity of water and a number of loaded 

 barges. One of these appeared like the hull of a collier, 

 with its deck all covered, after the manner of a cabin, 

 and having an iron chimney in the centre ; this, on 

 inquiry, proved to be the carpentry, but was shut up, 

 being Sabbath-day, as was another barge, which con- 

 tained the smith's forge. Some vessels were loaded with 

 soil, which was put into troughs (see Cut at p. 383) fas- 

 tened together, and rested on boards that lay across two 

 barges; between each of these there was room enough 

 to discharge the loading by loosening some iron pins at 

 the bottom of the troughs. Other barges lay loaded 

 with the foundation-stones of the canal bridge, which is 

 to carry the navigation across the Mersey. Near two 

 thousand oak piles are already driven to strengthen the 

 foundations of this bridge. The carpenters on the Lan- 

 cashire side were preparing the centre frame, and on the 

 Cheshire side all hands were at work in bringing down 

 the soil and beating the ground adjacent to the founda- 

 tions of the bridge, which is designed to b<j covered 



