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RI SOT Ee wien, Mh G4 
=< 7 
THE EARLY YEARS OF THE LAMAHA CANAL. 291 
MANGET, proprietor of Pln. K7tty, petitioned to be ad- 
mitted to the Canal Scheme which petition was granted 
on payment of £1,766. From the remarks of the President 
at this meeting it is clear that the only water which came 
into the Town reservoirs was drawn through a sluice in 
the dam, Mr. HOPKINSON’S or BOOKER’S. On the 5th 
January, 1830, the Commissioners, Mr. ABRAHAM GAR- 
NETT and Mr. BARRY, sent in the following interesting 
report as to the progress of the Lamaha works. They 
had on the rgth October previous issued a requisition for 
labourers from all the estates interested in the canal, of 
three per cent of their respective gangs, to meet on the 
26th Oétober for the objeét of extending the canal to 
the Lamaha Creek. The estates concerned, with the 
exception of Plns. Rome and Houston, Velzerhoofd, 
Haagsbosch and Perseverance, which did not send any 
sent their required quota of labourers, and the number 
of negroes thus obtained was only 72. With this number 
the work was continued until the 1gth of December, when 
it was suspended in consequence of the rainy season 
commencing, after the canal had been conneéted with 
the Creek at about 4,000 rods due S. of the head 
of Canal No. 3. The clearing of the line for the canal 
was as arduous an undertaking as the digging of the 
canal itself, owing to the roots and stumps of large 
trees and other obstru€tions long buried in the savannah. 
In consequence of the soft and spongy nature of the main 
savannah, now for the first time penetrated forthedistance 
of 1,000 rods, the proper and necessary level of the 
canal could not be driven through that part of its course, 
but by the rapid drainage which was shown by the vast 
stream of water that continually flowed from it towards 
