CHAP. VIII. TIIK (,1,'AND Ti;i>NK CANAL. 445 



thus : " Gentlemen conic to view our eighth wonder of 

 t lir w< >rld, the subterraneous navigation, which is cutting 

 by tin 1 irreat Mr. Brindley, who handles rocks as easily 

 ;is you would plum-pies, and makes the four elements 

 subservient to his will. He is as plain a looking man 

 as one of the boors of the Peak, or as one of his own 

 carters ; but when he speaks, all ears listen, and every 

 mind is filled with wonder at the things he pronounces 

 to be practicable. He has cut a mile through bogs, 

 which he binds up, embanking them with stones which 

 he gets out of other parts of the navigation, besides about 

 ;i quarter of a mile into the hill Yelden, on the side of 

 which he has a pump worked by water, and a stove, the 

 fire of which sucks through a pipe the damps that would 

 annoy the men who are cutting towards the centre of 

 the hill. The clay he cuts out serves for bricks to arch 

 the subterraneous part, which we heartily wish to see 

 finished to Wilden Ferry, when we shall be able to 

 semi Coals and Pots to London, and to different parts 

 of the globe." 



In the course of the first two years' operations, twenty- 

 two miles of the navigation had been cut and finished, 

 and it was expected that before eighteen months more 

 had elapsed the canal would be ready for traffic by water 

 between the Potteries and Hull on the one hand, and 

 Bristol on the other. It was also expected that by the 

 same time the canal would be ready for traffic from the 

 north end of Harecastle Tunnel to the river Mersey. 

 The execution of the tunnel, however, proved so tedious 

 ;ii id difficult, and the excavation and building went on 

 so slowly, that the Committee could not promise that it 

 would be finished in less than five years from that time. 

 As it was, the completion of the Harecastle Tunnel 

 occupied nine years more ; and it was not finally com- 

 pleted until the year 1777, by which time the great 

 engineer li;id finally rested-from his labours. 



It is scarcely necessary to describe the benefits which 



