INVERNESS. 



rounding diilrift. A fpaciouii harbour er bafin has been 

 conftrutted here for vefTels faUing acrofs the iiland by tlie 

 Caledonian canal. ^ 



Invcrnefs is a large and well-built town ; many of tlie 

 honfcs are lofty, and alTume an elegant appearance. It may 

 be confulered as the capital of the Highlands ; being the only 

 town of any importance north of Aberdeen. It was re- 

 turned, under the aft of 1801, as containing 1431 houfes, 

 and 87JJ2 inhabitants. Nearly in the centre of the town 

 ftands the Court-houfc, conncAcd with the Tolbooth, a 

 handfomc modern building, with a tower terminated by a 

 fpire. An academy, on a very liberal and extenfivc plan, 

 was etlablifhed here in the year 1790, and is fupported by 

 voluntary fubfcription. A piece of ground, containing 

 about three acres, was purchafed, and an appropriate build- 

 ing erefted, conlifting of a large public hall and fix fpacious 

 apartments, for the accommodation of the different claffes, 

 for a library, and for philofophical apparatus. The feminary 

 is condufted by a redor and four tutors ; the number of 

 Undents is generally between two and three hundred ; who 

 are divided into five clafTes. In the firft, the Englifh lan- 

 guage is taught ; in the fecond, Latin and Greek; in the 

 third, arithmetic and book-keeping ; in the fourth, geo- 

 metry, trigonometry, menfuration of planes and folids ; 

 geography, navigation, and praftical aftronomy ; naval, 

 civil, and military architefture ; gunnery, perfpeftive and 

 drawing ; in the tifth, or higheft, under the immediate care 

 of the rector, are taught civil and natural hiftory, experi- 

 mental philofophy, and chemillry. The reftor has a fmall 

 houfe and a fmall falary ; the tutors have ftill lefs falaries ; 

 fo that their chief dependence is on the fees of their feveral 

 cLifTes, vvliich is an incitement to attention and induftry. 



The civil government of the town is veiled inaprovoft, four 

 bailiffs, and a dean of guild, affilled by a council of twenty- 

 one members, called the town council. The members of the 

 new council are eledlcd every year by the old previous to 

 their fecelTion from office : and the former eleft from among 

 themfelves the provoil, baihffs, dean of guild, and a treafurcr. 

 There are fix corporations of craftfmen, beiides feveral crafts 

 not incorporated. Tlie edifices for public worfliip are, 

 three national or Prefbyterian churches, and one of Epif- 

 copalians, vi-ith chapels for diffenting congregations. 



About half a mile from the town, on the weflern fide, is 

 Tmona-heurich, the " Hill of Fairies," a beautiful infulated 

 hill covered with trees. It is of a fuigular form, nearly 

 refenibling a fhip with the keel uppermoft : its bafe is a 

 parallelogram, in length 1984 feet, in breadth 176; from 

 which it rifes above 250 feet above the level of the river. 

 About a mile farther from the town is another hill, called 

 Crai_; Phatric, rugged and fleep, and much higher than the 

 former; the elevation of its higheft part being 1150 feet 

 above the bed of the river : tlie fummit is flat, and has been 

 furrounded by a wall eighty yards long by thirty broad. 

 The moil remarkable circumilance attending it is, that the 

 ftones are all firmly cemented together by a vitrified matter 

 ■ like lava, or rcfembling the flag or fcorire of an iron foun- 

 dery ; and even the flones, in many places, feem to have been 

 foftened and vitrified. The circuit court of jufticinry for 

 the northern diflrift, comprehending the counties of Invcr- 

 nefs, Rofs, Caithhefs, Orkney, and Sutherland, is held at 

 this place. Sinclair's Statiflical Account of Scotland, 

 vol. ix. 



lNvr:.tNE.ss, New, a town of America, in the flate of 

 Georgia, fituated on the river Alatamaha, and built by a 

 company of emigrants from the Highlands of Scotland, 130 

 of whom were taken oven by Gon. Oglethorpe in 1734. It 

 irs about 20 miles from Fiedcrica. 



I.VVERNESS and Fort William Canal, was the parliamen- 

 tary name firfl given, in the aft of 1793, to an important 

 line of canal for the paffage of large fhips acrofs Scotland, 

 principally in Invernefsfhire, of the deiigns for whxh wc 

 "•ave a full account, under tliat head, in our article Canal, 

 and have fince added, under the topographical articles 

 Clachn-aciiarry andCoiiPACH, villages at the extremities 

 of the hne, fuch particulars as had occurrtd to the time of 

 putting thefe articles to the prefs, refpefting the progrefs of 

 the works : in the prefent article we fhall have the pleafure 

 of flating the further and fuccefsful progrefs, to the prefent 

 time, of this very lai-ge and important undertaking, now 

 more commonly known by the name of the Caledonian 

 Canal. Seven annual reports have now been made by the 

 commiflioners appointed to manage this great national work, 

 and printed by order of the houfe of commons ; which re- 

 ports contain the greatell body of minute information, fatis- 

 faftorily arranged, by ,Iohn Rickman, efq. the fLcretary to 

 the commiflioners, which has, perhaps, ever been given to 

 the public, and fhew flrongly the merit which is due lo 

 Meffrs. William Jeffop and^Thonias Telford the engineers, 

 for the correftnefs of their original deiigns and cftimates, 

 and to the latter gentleman in particular, for carrying the 

 whole into eflVft by himfelf and liis refijent affiihuiU. From 

 the lafl of thefe reports (ordered to be printed the Jifl of 

 May 1810), it appears, that about fix miles in length at the 

 Clachnacharry, north-callern, or Invcrnefs end of the line, 

 were in hand or finifhcd ; and about the fame length, at the 

 Corpach, weflern or Fort-William end, were alfo in progreft, 

 except fome particular parts, pvcfenting no material difficul- 

 ties. We fhall firfl mention thofe important and expenfive 

 works, the entrance fea-locks in Loch Bcaidcy, and in Loch 

 Ell. 



At Clachnacharry two fea-mounds, or parallel banks for 

 inclofing the canal, have been extended more than 360 yards 

 into the fea beyond high water-mark, and have been fecured 

 by a wall of puddled earth carried up from the bottom : 

 and as the fhore here is found to confill of wet muddy fands, 

 capable of confiderable comprefiion by the weight of thefe 

 artificial banks, the fame have been extended higher than 

 would otherwife have been neceffary, and at the further ex- 

 tremity they have been joined into a folid mafs, by fdling 

 up the fpace in which the fea-lock is to be conflrufted, and 

 allowing time for this great weight of earth to aet, in com- 

 prefTing the foft bottom, before tlie digging therein for the 

 lock is commeneed ; by which the great cxpence and riik 

 of a coffer-dam is to be avoided. The fea-mounds of earth, 

 three hundredand fifty yards beyond high-water mark, andthe 

 coffer-dam for the fea-lock at Corpach, iiad been fome months 

 made and erefted and flood firm, and at the time of making 

 the 7th report tlie fleam-engine and drains thereto from the 

 fcite of the lock were completed ready for commencing the 

 excavation. The fecond lock at the fouth-c.ifl end of 

 Clachnacharry village had been completed, except the gates, 

 ever fince 1S06; the mafonry of the four connefted locks 

 (Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6,) at Muirtown, N of Invcrntfs, were alfo 

 completed, and their joints pointed with Parker's cement, 

 prepared from the Ludus helmontia, or clay-balls of the 

 London clay flrata. The two locks at the N.W. end of 

 Corpach village were lono finiflicd, all but their gates, and 

 the mafonry of the fix Towefl of the principal chain of 

 eight locks near Corpach-mofs were about completed. In 

 the next moll important head, that of aqueduft bridges, 

 road arches, and culverts under the canal, one, only a fmidl 

 culvert, had been found neceffary in the CLichnachari-y dif- 

 trift, and was finiflied in the lands of Kinmylics : in the Cor- 

 pach dillrift, five confiderable aqucduftshadbeea complcteda 

 7 Lng 



