66 Notice of the Louisville Canal, fyc. 



two feet above its bottom, which is four feet below the sur- 

 face of the water in the basin at Louisville, at the time of 

 low water. A mark on a house in Louisville, is said to be 

 at the height of the highest flood known, since the settle- 

 ment of the place. This mark was found to be forty feet 

 above the bottom of the canal ; the banks are to be two 

 feet above this indication of the highest floods. 



The whole amount of earth excavation, according to the 

 original estimates, is six hundred and eighty-seven thousand 

 cubic yards. This is to be excavated so as to make a slope 

 of one and three fourths base to one rise. There are several 

 modes resorted to in the excavation of this earth, but the 

 most efficient are (as is usual on canals,) carts, scrapers, 

 and wheelbarrows. The last of these modes is used, where 

 the runs (as the plank-ways for the wheelbarrows are cal- 

 led) are too steep to be ascended in the ordinary way, by 

 fastening three or four of them to a rope, which at the 

 top of the bank, goes over two pullies, and is then drawn 

 by an ox team, parallel to the canal. When the barrows 

 are at the top of the bank, the team is ready to retrace its 

 steps, and draw up a similar set of barrows on another run 

 and so on alternately. 



The amount of rock excavation originally estimated, was 

 one hundred and eleven thousand cubic yards, but a small 

 part of which, has been removed in consequence of the 

 backwardness of the earth excavation. It extends the 

 whole length of the canal, varying in depth from one foot 

 to ten feet ; but on an average about seven. This is to be 

 cut in a perpendicular manner, making the bottom of the 

 canal, fifty feet wide. Consequently, we have a horizontal 

 basis, on the surface of the rock, which is more or less ac- 

 cording to the depth of the rock and serves as a foundation, 

 and commencement of a pavement, which extends to the 

 top of the banks. This pavement is necessary to prevent 

 the abrasion of the banks, by the motion of the water pro- 

 duced by the wheels of steamboats, &c. The excavation 

 of rock is done by drilling, and blasting, and is afterwards 

 removed from the canal, by the use of a crane of the same 

 construction as those used on the mountain ridge in New 

 York, invented by Mr. Orange Dibble. Of the crane I en- 

 close a figure. 



There are four locks, three lift locks, and one guard-lock. 

 They are all combined, and situated at the lower end of the 



