1916-17.] 2?5 



county road for about half a mile (approximately by the course of 

 an old eighteenth-century canal), many evidences were noted of 

 the disused workings of coal-pits and clay-pits, the blue clay being 

 here utilised for the manufacture of fire-clay goods. The county 

 road was left at Torrent Cottage, and the party proceeded by 

 " Lowry's Line." This walk is the old towpath made alongside 

 the canal, the word line being locally used for the English 

 " towpath." The first visible evidence of this old canal consists 

 of an arch opposite Drumreagh House, probably erected to carry 

 a road (of which no trace now remains) across the canal ; but a 

 few yards further on the canal, now degenerated into a mere 

 ' ; shough," could be easily traced for about a mile on to the 

 aqueduct. This aqueduct is a substantial structure built of 

 Carboniferous sandstone (doubtless taken from a quarry in the 

 immediate neighbourhood), and was erected to carry this ill-fated 

 canal across the Torrent River. On arrival at the aqueduct at 

 eleven o'clock the conductor gave a short account of the canal, 

 and in the course of bis remarks said that in 1729 the Irish 

 Parliament appointed "Commissioners of Inland Navigation" 

 charged with the primary duty of encouraging tillage and giving 

 employment to the poor, and incidentally developing navigation. 

 At this time was made, at a cost of ^26,000, the canal from 

 Lough Neagh, or more correctly from the River Blackwater, about 

 three miles above the lough, to Coalisland, the length of the canal 

 being some 4^2 miles, and the difference in elevation — 51 feet — 

 surmounted by means of seven locks. This canal is still exten- 

 sively used, and constitutes perhaps the best paying canal in 

 Ireland. In the first half of the eighteenth century the conditions 

 in the rural parts of Ireland were deplorable, and Dublin was the 

 centre of Irish life, where money was spent while the rest of 

 the country bled. These Commissioners, naturally enough, 

 directed their attentions to the problem of getting coals from the 

 Congo and Drumglass collieries to Dublin, and many schemes 

 were evolved and much money spent with this object. One 



