458 BKINDLEY'S LAST CANALS. PART V. 



which are considerable and many ; for it hath been found by long 

 experience to be impassable for barges in time of flood, which in 

 most years continues several months during the winter, and is out 

 of the power of art to remedy. It likewise is impassable in time 

 of long droughts, for want of a sufficient depth of water ; but this 

 difficulty may be removed, and the most effectual way to do it 

 would be by making dams and (cistern) locks, the dams to 

 pound up one to another : the number of which may be ascertained 

 by the profile, which, I suppose, will be about twelve ; for if they 

 be made to pound more than five or six feet, some of the adjacent 

 lands will be laid under water, or be subject to be soon flooded, as 

 may be seen by the surface of it in the profile. But the expense of 

 improving so large a river in this way will be so great that I 

 suppose it will not be put in practice. 



" It is impossible for me to tell what the expense would be, but 

 dare make bold to say it will be five or six times the expense of 

 making a cansfl, and, when done, will be far from being so safe and 

 speedy a conveyance ; yet the river may be made better than it 

 is, and that at no very extraordinary expense. The method that I 

 would propose is, to contract the channel in the shallow and broad 

 places, most of which are marked in the plan. By this means a 

 sufficient depth of water, I suppose, may be obtained in all places, 

 or at least may be made much better than it is ; but the fall will 

 remain the same, and the current increase by the increased depth 

 of water, and consequently it will require more strength of men 

 and horses to draw the barges against the stream ; yet by this 

 means it may be rendered much more certain than it is, and an 

 easy navigation downward (except in time of flood) ; but the great 

 labour and expense of taking a vessel upwards cannot be taken away 

 by any method that I know of but by making a canal, by means 

 of which most places upon the banks of the river may be supplied 

 by collateral cuts ; for it is practicable to make branches from the 

 main canal to fall into the river wheresoever it may be most useful 

 to the country, viz. one may be made to communicate with the 

 river above Windsor Bridge ; the length will be about a mile, and 

 the fall or lockage ten feet. Another cut may very easily be made 

 from near West Bedford to the lower end of Staines : the length 

 will be about two miles and seven furlongs, and the fall twenty-six 

 feet. And whenever it is thought proper, another may be made to 

 communicate with the river at or near Shepperton : this would be 

 convenient to the Guildford navigation and the several places down 

 the stream to Kingston. By these collateral cuts all the places 



