50 
Trunk Drainage. 
lighters, enabling them to be raised or lowered from one head of 
water to .mother ; but a " staunch " has only a single gate or 
barrier, placed entirely across the stream, and holding up the 
water 3 to 5 feet higher on one side than the other, to obtain a 
head for working the water-mills, or else for navigation only. 
Tliere are two kindt) of staunches : one consisting of a sill put 
across the river, boards being sot vertically side by side ; each 
board has a handle, and these (sometimes 19 boardsj have to 
be lifted up perpendicularly one by one by the watermen, and 
the boats pulled through by horses — commonly by an extraordi- 
nary force of horses — dragging the loaded barges up an inclined 
plane of rushing water. If the waterman wait until there is 
level water in the two heads, he cannot proceed on his journey, 
because the upper head will quickly become dry ; so that he is 
obliged to avail himself of an extra strength of horses, and force 
his boat against the stream, raising it 2 or 3 feet by the operation. 
The other kind of staunch is a door drawing up like a portcullis 
for the barges to pass under. The boats are often plunged under 
water in thus passing the staunches, and goods are often lost, and 
serious accidents incurred. As there are no less than eleven of 
these staunches, where every waterman has to undergo this labo- 
rious and Chinese order of progression, besides paying 4s. Qid. per 
ton for his use of the navigation, this line of traffic is becoming 
neglected, and of very little use either to its proprietors or the 
public. There are also a great many sharp and dangerous bends 
and shoals in the stream, so that, in order to navigate at all, the 
boatmen put boards upon the tops of the weirs or overfalls, which 
causes the adjoining lands to be flooded. Then, again, when 
there is a drought, the boats cannot pass for want of water ; and 
when there is a flood, they are stopped because the haling-way 
is covered • and as the latter is a constantly occurring matter, the 
watermen are often overtaken by a day's rain, and held in chains 
for days and even weeks. The floods have been known to lie for 
three, five, ten, and sometimes thirteen weeks together, to the 
complete stoppage of commerce between Peterborough and North- 
ampton. The boatmen, too, are often obliged to get the luater- 
niill below a sluice or flood-gate to stop loorhvig, while the mill 
above keeps going, so as to give them a little extra height of 
water, without which they could not get through. The boats 
also often let go the water, in a dry time, which is wanted held 
up by the mills ; so that the two interests often clash with and 
injure one another. Between Peterborough and Wisbech tlie 
navigation is almost abandoned. Common boats, drawing only 
3 or 3t feet of water, are constantly detained at the " Dog-in-a- 
Doublet" Bridge, 5 miles below Peterborough, and in other 
portions of the river, where there are slioals^ for days together ; 
