414 



CALEDONIAN CANAL. 



PART VIII. 



leaving only about 20 miles of canal to be constructed, 

 but of unusually large dimensions and through a very 

 difficult country. 



The summit loch of the whole is Loch Oich, the 

 surface of which is exactly a hundred feet above high 

 water-mark, both at Inverness and Fort William ; and 

 to this sheet of water the navigation climbs up by a 

 series of locks from both the eastern and western seas. 

 The whole number of these is twenty-eight : the en- 

 trance-lock at Clachnagarry, constructed on piles, at the 



LUCK, CALEDONIAN CANAL 



end of huge embankments, forced out into deep water, at 

 Loch Beauly ;* another at the entrance to the capacious 

 artificial harbour above mentioned at Muirtown ; four 

 connected locks at the southern end of this basin ; a 



1 In the ' Sixteenth Report of the 

 Commissioners of the Caledonian Ca- 

 nal,' the following reference is made 

 to this important work, which was 

 finished in 1812 :" The depth of 

 the mud on which it may be said to 

 be artificially seated is not less than 

 60 feet ; so that it cannot be deemed 

 superfluous, at the end of seven years, 

 to state that no subsidence is dis- 

 coverable ; and we presume that the 

 entire lock, as well as every part of it, 

 may now be deemed as immovable, 



and as little liable to destruction, as 

 any other large mass of masonry. 

 This was the most remarkable work 

 performed under the immediate care 

 of Mr. Matthew Davidson, our super- 

 intendent at Clachnagarry, from 1804 

 till the time of his decease. He was 

 a man perfectly qualified for the em- 

 ployment by inflexible integrity, un- 

 wearied industry, and zeal to a degree 

 of anxiety, in all the operations com- 

 mitted to his care." 



