268 



canal. The former of those works, constructed 

 from 1777 to 1784, joins the Baltic with the 

 North Sea, between Kiel and Tonningen ; hav- 

 ing only six locks, and passing over a bar of 28 

 feet. It separates the continental part of 

 Denmark from Germany, and enables vessels of 

 an ordinary size to avoid the dangerous passage 

 of the Cattegat and the Sound. It receives 

 ships of from 140 to 160 tons*, coming from 

 the ports of Russia and Prussia, and going to 

 England, the Mediterranean, Philadelphia, the 

 Havannah, and the western coast of Africa. 

 These vessels draw only from 8 to 10 feet of 

 water -f\ Being generally constructed in Hol- 

 land or in the Baltic, the ribs are very flat, and 

 they are consequently spacious without draw- 

 ing much water. The Caledonian canal, not 

 the most useful, but unquestionably the most 

 magnificent hydraulic work hitherto under- 

 taken, is an oceanic canal in the strictest sense 

 of the terms. It unites the eastern and western 

 seas of Scotland, between Inverness and Fort 

 William, in a neck of land across which nature 



* From 75 to 90 Last. The size of the flat bottomed 

 boats that sail on the canals of great navigation in England, 

 is generally but from 40 to 50 tons. On the canal of Lan- 

 guedoc, the largest boats are of 1*20 tons. 



f The feet are always the ancient measure of France, in 

 pieds de roi, of which 6 make lm,949, when the contrary is 

 not expressly indicated. 



