410 CALEDONIAN CANAL. l',\RTVm. 



and stormy seas, which rendered the navigation both 

 tedious and dangerous. Thus it was cited by Sir Edward 

 Parry, in his evidence before Parliament in favour of 

 completing the Caledonian Canal, that of two vessels 

 despatched from Newcastle on the same day one bound 

 for Liverpool by the north of Scotland, and the other 

 for Bombay by the English Channel and the Cape of 

 Good Hope the latter reached its destination first! 

 Another case may be mentioned, of an Inverness vessel, 

 which sailed for Liverpool on a Christmas Day, reached 

 Stromness Harbour, in Orkney, on the 1st of January, 

 and lay there windbound, with a fleet of other traders, 

 until the middle of April following ! In fact the Pent- 

 land Frith, which is the throat connecting the Atlantic 

 and German Oceans, and through which the former rolls 

 its long majestic waves with tremendous force, was the 

 dread of mariners, and it was considered an object of 

 national importance to mitigate the dangers of the pas- 

 sage towards the western seas. 



As the lochs occupying the chief part of the bottom 

 of the Great Glen were of sufficient depth to be navigable 

 by large vessels, it was thought that if they could be 

 connected by a ship canal, so as to render the line of 

 navigation continuous, it would be used by shipping 

 to a large extent, and prove of great public service. 

 Five hundred miles of dangerous navigation by the 

 Orkneys and Cape Wrath would thus be saved, and 

 ships of war, were this track open to them, might reach 

 the north of Ireland in two days from Fort George, 

 near Inverness. When the scheme of the proposed canal 

 was revived in 1801, Mr. Telford was requested to make 

 a survey and send in his report on the subject. He 

 immediately wrote to his friend James Watt, saying, 

 " I have so long accustomed myself to look with a degree 

 of reverence to your work, that I am particularly anxious 

 to learn what occurred to you in this business while the 

 whole was fresh in your mind. The object appears to 



