ON THE INDUSTRIAL USES OF THE UPPER BANN RIVER. 1438 
to join: From the confluence of the Muddock to Kate’s Bridge, a distance 
of six and a half miles, there is 27 fect 9 inches of unoccupied fall. There 
were two weir-dams on this reach, called Ronghan and Ballyroney; the former 
was taken down more than ten years ago, and the latter has become dila- 
pidated since the mill was burnt a few years ago. From Kate’s Bridge to 
Aughnacloy or Ervin’s Weir, a distance of two miles, there is one fall of 
7 feet 3 inches oceupied by a corn-mill and 24 feet of unoccupied fall, The 
intake of the feeder to the Corbet reservoir from the Bann is about thirty 
yards above Ervin’s Weir, and is regulated by sluices 20 feet wide, which 
admit a large quantity of water when the river is flooded. Outside these 
sluices a stone ridge or sill, at a level 14 inch below that of Ervin’s Weir, is 
built across the widened mouth of the feeder to regulate between the Bann 
Reservoir Company and the mill-owners on this fall. On this sill the care- 
taker daily measures the depth of water, and, when he finds it below the 
standard, supplies the deficiency from the Corbet Reservoir ; when that is 
exhausted he sends for a supply to Lough Island Reavy. The rainfall 
gathering-ground of the Bann above this point is eighty square miles, and 
there is a rain-gauge now kept there by the caretaker, who also keeps a 
register of the depth of the daily flow of water over Eryin’s Weir and the 
daily height of water in the reservoir. The feeder is one and three eighths of 
a mile long and 24 feet wide. At its entrance to the reservoir there are 
self-acting gates, which close when the water in the reservoir is higher than 
that in the feeder. The area of the reservoir when full is 70 acres, and 
the greatest depth of water above the lowest point of discharge 11 feet 
3 inches. The sill at Ervin’s Weir is 7 feet above the lowest point of dis- 
charge, so the river raises the reservoir as much in excess of that height 
as the floods rise above the sill. A small stream at the north-east end of 
the reservoir makes it up to the top level in winter. The water from the 
reservoir is discharged through three iron sluices 3 feet wide each, and capable 
of being raised to a height of 1 foot: one only of these is now used. The 
sluice-frame is secured in a strong water-tight wall in the centre of the em- 
bankment, behind which is an arched chamber, into which the water flows, 
and passes down a conduit, a quarter of a mile long and 20 feet wide, to the 
river. There was only embankment required for this reservoir; a considerable 
‘portion of the feeder also required embanking. It cost more, in proportion 
to the extent of the works, than Lough Island Reavy, as the contractor was 
not able to carry out his contract, and the Company were obliged to finish it 
themselves. Lough Island Reavy cost for engineering works £15,000, and 
for land £6000. The capital of the Company is £31,000; deducting the 
reserve fund of £1000, there remains £9000 for the Corbet reservoir and 
parliamentary expenses. The income of the Company is derived from the 
falls, on which the charge is £10 per annum per foot to linen-bleachers, 
manufacturers, and spinners and flour-millers, and £5 to corn-millers and 
flax-seutch millers. 
The fall from the outlet at Lough Island Reavy to the tail-race of the last 
mill at Moyallen is 350 feet; of this, 180 feet 2inches are occupied by mills, 
and can be rated. Of this 180 feet 2 inches, 7 feet 3 inches are occupied by 
the Linen Hill mill, about one and a quarter mile above the intake to the 
Corbet reservoir, and 6 feet 4 inches by the Ardbrin Mill on Ervin’s Weir at 
the intake. The remaining fall of 166 feet 7 inches is below the outlet from 
the Corbet reservoir, and is divided over a distance of eleven and a half miles 
of the course of the Bann, passing the towns of Banbridge and Gilford, and 
ending at Moyallen, below which the river is joined by the Newry canal and 
