pass

Admitting that one third less tonage will through the canal, there remains 194,000; and two-pence per ton, per mile, upon this, making ten shillings for sixty miles, will produce a revenue of 97,000l. amounting to more than double the interest and expenses. It seems that the faith in this statement was not very strong; otherwise the canal, besides its public utility, would have been considered a most profitable speculation by a private company.

Besides the additional security to the trade now carried on round the northern extremity of the island, and the revenue which it was expected to produce, several other advantages, local and general, were mentioned as likely to result from the proposed canal. Many thousands of acres along the banks of the canal, at present lying waste, were to be brought into cultivation; the pines of Glenmoriston, the oak, fir, and birch forests of Glengary, and the large pine forest of Loch Arkeig would find easy access to the market, and planting would be encouraged over the mountains, moors, and valleys, in the vicinity of the great glen; lime is found along the whole line, and stone marl in some parts of it; and the lime and slate quarries would be wrought with more advantage, and to a much greater extent; and the lime shells from the west

ern shores would easily be brought to manure the fine arable fields of the eastern coast; the industry and capital of the eastern coast would be made to bear with more facility upon the fisheries of the western lakes, especially the herring, cod, and ling fisheries, where the field of action was inexhaustible; indications of minerals, such as iron, manganese, copper, lead, molybdena, &c. were said to have been discovered in the vicinity; and the facility of carriage by the canal would encourage the search for and working of mines; manufactories would be established on its banks in all those articles, of which wool and flax constituted the chief raw materials, as the raw material might be had on the spot; and the canal, by facilitating the car. riage of provisions and fuel, would ensure cheapness of living and labour, and the ready conveyance to market of the manufactured commodities and lastly it was said, that "When the "Caledonian Canal shall be finished, not only "will the dangerous navigation of the Pentland "firth and Western Isles be avoided, but we

may hope that, by the introduction of com66 merce and manufactures, the industry of the "highlanders will be awakened, their happiness "increased, and a stop for ever put to the evils "of emigration."

These expected advantages are certainly estimated at the highest and most sanguine rate, but there does appear a reasonable ground of hope that most of them will be realized in some degree, especially since the invention of navigation by steam, even although some difficulties should occur, which now are not probable, in the navigation of the canal in the usual manner. But the expectation that emigration will be prevented, or in any material degree diminished appears to be entirely unfounded. It was argued in favour of the project, in and before 1803, that the work would afford employment at home, to the people of the vicinity, who would otherwise emigrate; and it is singular that -this argument should have been insisted upon, chiefly, by those who might have been well acquainted with the habits and disposition of the ancient race, whose notions of living and labour were all connected with the occupation of land, and with whom, when separated from their native soil, the hope of land formed the great inducement to emigration. Some of them do still remain in the highlands as shepherds, a congenial employment, and in the highlands or lowlands, as day labourers, partly from a disinclination to quit their native soil, partly from want of means to emigrate, and particularly from the

acquisition of more accurate notions of the difficulties attending the clearing of land in America, and the formation of new settlements; and likewise of the treachery to which those who emigrated without capital were exposed, both in their transportation and subsequent condition. But the canal work, ever since its commencement, has been performed chiefly by labourers from Ireland and the low country, few comparatively of the natives having engaged in it at any time of the year, and scarcely any of them for the whole year; and there is no probable ground for the belief that the canal has in its progress prevented, or will, in its results, in any material degree prevent emigration.

It was determined, however, from whatever motives, to carry the scheme of this canal into execution at the public expense: and the dimensions fixed upon were 20 feet deep, 50 feet wide at bottom, and 110 at top, the locks to be 20 feet deep, 170 feet long, and 40 feet broad, so that frigates of 32 guns and merchant ships of 1000 tons burden might pass through it. The estimated expense was 500,000l. and the time within which the canal was to be completed seven years. The work commenced in 1803, and is still in progress after an expenditure upon it of nearly 800,000l. It was not expected in

the vicinity of the canal, that it would be finished before 1821 or 1822, so that the time will be little short of 20 years, and the expense probably not much under a million. At this period (October 1818) the workmen were employed in finishing the last loch in the western district, but much remained to be done in the middle district, particularly in deepening Loch Oich. In some places, new channels were opened for the rivers Ness, Oich, and Lochy, and portions of the old channels taken for the cut of the canal. Considerable difficulties were experienced in the eastern district, at the sandy hills of Torrivane, and Torrimer, and at the loch of Duffour; but the canal has been finished, and the passage is now open from Inverness to Kilcummin, at the south-western end of Lochness, which is about one half of the course; and according to the report at Inverlochy, a great number of vessels had consequently entered Loch Ness, and navigated it in all quarters, so that the opinion of the general facility of navigating these lakes, has been so far confirmed.

This work was carried on, and large sums were expended upon it, during a long period of national difficulty; and yet it can hardly be at present asserted, upon any rational grounds of confidence, that the profitable use and advan