80 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Western bridge rail inverted ; they were relinquished because 
the flange of the wheel cut them out so soon. The canal 
terminates at a point 240 feet above the river level, and the 
inclined plane connects the two. On this incline were laid two 
lines of rails, and there are two winding barrels on the engine at 
the top. The second line of rails has been removed, but I am 
informed that it was used by the descending trucks. 
I was very much struck with the picturesque appearance of the 
water-wheel and winding machinery, by which the incline was 
worked. The wheel itself, which was worked by the waste 
water of the canal, is about three feet breast, and twenty-five 
to thirty feet in diameter. On its axle is fitted a somewhat 
ponderous bevelled cog-wheel, into which gears another of similar 
dimensions. This is fixed on a stout wooden axle, which rises 
almost vertically, and moves, by the aid of another pair of 
bevel-wheels, another horizontal wooden axle about one foot 
eight inches square in cross section. On this last is fixed a 
large drum, on to which winds the chain, of four-inch link 
and three-quarter-inch iron, which was used to draw up the 
ascending train of trucks laden with coal, lime, &c. Another 
large drum, with a wire rope wound on it, is so connected 
with this last by a pair of ordinary toothed wheels that the 
descending train, laden with copper ore, was made to assist 
the water-wheel in drawing up the ascending trucks. 
The incline at places is as steep as one in six ; and I found the 
remains of a truck, in which one pair of wheels was four inches 
greater in diameter than the other, the idea being to keep the 
body of the truck level. On the quay at Morwellham, and also 
at the head of the incline, are still to be seen remains of the 
permanent way. 
The gauge of the line was four feet three inches. It consisted 
of rolled iron flat-headed rails, fixed into cast-iron chairs by means 
of wr ought-iron keys or wedges about six inches long and half an 
inch thick. These chairs were each secured by wrought-iron 
spikes to stones, either of granite or slate (killas), about two feet 
long by one foot wide, and six inches deep, placed about three feet 
apart, centre to centre. I calculate that the rail, which was only 
three inches deep and one inch and a-half wide at the top, would 
weigh about 25 lbs. per yard run. 
While looking round the canal terminus I noticed an ancient 
