Canal

“ Seventeen years now since he bent to his oar behind my cushions—twenty-six in all since I began to idle about her canals. It is either the little canal next the Public Garden, or up the Giudecca, or under the bronze horses of San Marco; or it may be we are camped out in the Piazzetta before the Porta della Carta; or perhaps up the narrow canal of San Rocco, or in the Fruit Market near the Rialto while the boats unload their cargoes.
All old subjects and yet ever new; each has been painted a thousand times, and in as many different lights and perspectives. ”

“ Whatever it may be, dead or living, ghost or mortal, I bid the driver halt, and alighting, hasten to the edge of the canal. Looking into the dark muddy water, I see a lad of about twelve years, just able to keep his head above the stream, and screaming lustily for help. A young man reaches the spot at the same moment, and plunges instantly into the canal to the rescue of the boy who is too much frightened and exhausted to give any account of himself. ”

“ Canal life in Eastern France is a characteristic feature, the whole region being intersected by a network of waterways, those chemins qui marchent, or walking roads as Michelet picturesquely calls them. And strolling on the banks of the canal here you may be startled by an astonishing sight, you see folks walking, or apparently walking, on water. Standing bolt upright on a tiny raft, carefully maintaining their balance, country people are towed from one side to the other. ”

“ For a short distance the Passaic and the canal run side by side, but presently they part company, and mile after mile the canal seems to have the world to itself, once in a great while finding human companionship in a shingled cottage half hidden among willows, a sleepy brick-field run on principles as ancient as itself, shy little girls picking flowers on its banks, or saucy boys disporting themselves in the old swimming-hole ”

“ VIEW ON THE ERIE CANAL, NEAR LITTLE FALLS.
The passage of the Canal, under the lofty bluff which springs at this place from the edge of the Mohawk, is one of the most beautiful of the many beautiful features disclosed to the voyager on this great outlet of the West. No traveller sees a greater variety of fine objects within the same distance than the follower of the Canal from Schenectady to Buffalo; and certainly none sees them with more ease and comfort to himself. The packet-boats are long drawing-rooms, where he dines, sleeps, reads, lolls, or looks out of the window ”

“ Next morning we are up on deck in good time, as we want to see all we can of the canal. We are by this time out in the wide water of the Bitter Lake, where we can go at a good speed, then the canal itself begins again and we pass one of the little station-houses where the signalmen live; it looks as if it was built out of a child's bricks, and stands on the arid banks with only a few scanty palms near. It must be a dreary sort of life for ever signalling to ships which are going onward to all countries of the world, while you yourself remain pinned down in the same few square yards of land. ”

“ The making of the Canal is in every sense a conquest. It is a new civilization that the 40,000 or 50,000 folk are constructing down there, and every man, whether he is employed in [Pg 58] the commissariat, the sanitary department, in an office, on a steam shovel, or with a construction gang, will tell you that he is building the Canal. All these people are giving a good account of themselves because they are doing the work under the flag and because they are contending with vast difficulties. ”

“ Whenever, as a man told me who was standing near, it is necessary to lay the bed of the canal dry, in the immediate neighbourhood for the purpose of making repairs, the floodgate to the canal is closed, and the one to the lower part of the weir is opened, and then the water from the pond flows into the Dee, whilst a sluice, near the first lock, lets out the water of the canal into the river. The head of the canal is situated in a very beautiful spot. To the left or south is a lofty hill covered with wood. ”

“ These little cities by the canal side had a very odd effect upon the mind. They seemed, with their flower- [Pg 51] pots and smoking chimneys, their washings and dinners, a rooted piece of nature in the scene; and yet if only the canal below were to open, one junk after another would hoist sail or harness horses and swim away into all parts of France; and the impromptu hamlet would separate, house by house, to the four winds. The children who played together to-day by the Sambre and Oise Canal, each at his own father's threshold, when and where might they next meet? ”

“ In the first place, a large part of the ship-canal must be made in the valley of the river Chagres, a river so inconvenient and dangerous that we must have nothing to do with it, at no matter what cost, if we desire that the canal should have a regular water-level—a condition absolutely necessary for its success. ”

“ The vastness of the interests to be served by the canal, many of which interests now wait for their development on the construction of the waterway, demands that the canal shall, when opened for traffic, be of the type which will most perfectly fulfil the purposes which the waterway is intended to accomplish. ”

“ The first walk we entered is called the back walk, which opens a view to the left of the half-moon water, and the canal, (names expressive of their disgusting forms) backed by a proud bank of shade, out of whose bosom the upper members of a Gothic tower discover themselves. A cast from the antique, (two contending Gladiators) forms one of the ornaments of the little plat of turf on this side the canal; whilst to the right the eye is prevented from excursion by a lofty wooded bank, darkened with firs, the favourite tree of the spot, some of which are one hundred and eighteen feet high. ”

“ The question of how far it would be expedient to construct a ship canal that would relieve the congested traffic of the river, and permit of vessels entering the docks at all times, has been mooted, but has never been very seriously entertained. ”

“ They advance a number of specific reasons why a lock canal when completed will for all practical purposes—commercial, military, and naval—be a better canal than a sea-level waterway with a tidal lock, as proposed by the majority members of the Board. ”

“ Canal construction consists chiefly of open-cut excavation, but embankments, aqueducts, tunnels, culverts, bridges, and a variety of other construction work are involved. The plant used and methods adopted in excavating canals depend very largely upon the size of the canal section and the material encountered. In rock the practice is the same everywhere, and consists in the use of power drills and explosives for breaking up the rock, and derricks, conveyors, and cars hauled by animal or mechanical power for removing it. ”

“ These widening greatly improved the facilities for ships travelling in opposite directions to pass each other. In the early days of the canal, except in the Bitter Lakes, vessels could pass each other only at a few crossing places or gares, which had a collective length of less than a mile; but owing to the widening that have been carried out, passing is now possible at any point over the greater part of the canal, one vessel stopping while the other proceeds on her way. ”

“ In a boat canal of small section, the plant required is small and simple, but in large ship-canal sections very large and powerful machinery and elaborate power plants supplying compressed air and electricity arc employed. In small canals soft-ground excavation is commonly performed by means of shovels and plows for loosening the material, and scrapers and carts for carrying it from the excavation. In larger canals this plant is increased by the addition of grading and excavating machines and steam-shovels loading into carts or cars hauled by horses or light locomotives. ”

“ The advantages of this canal are very great. Ships, once inside the lock, can lie safely in the basin, and the whole country is benefited by the conveyance of coals, timber, and other traffic into the interior.
More than all, the canal supplies the neighbouring villages, within a circuit of perhaps twenty miles, with the famous Bude sea-sand. For centuries this has been taken from the beach in front of the village, and for centuries no lasting increase and no decrease have been marked. ”

“ Its survey crosses no rivers; but were a canal to do so, it would, if on the same level, let the river run into the canal and act as a water-feeder. If not on a level, either the river or the canal would be crossed by an aqueduct. Mountains are tunnelled, or the route laid out around them. ”

“ THIS second monograph on the great American canals which played the part of important highways westward, is devoted to an outline of the Erie Canal. In the comparatively short space at our disposal for so great a theme, it has been possible only to sketch some of the leading features of our subject, namely, the early history of the Mohawk Valley route, the origin of the canal idea, its building, the celebration of its completion, a catalogue of its finances and enlargements, and its effect. ”

“ The canal extends to the foot of the mountain, and there, of course, it stops; the passengers being conveyed across it by land carriage, and taken on afterwards by another canal boat, the counterpart of the first, which awaits them on the other side. There are two canal lines of passage-boats; one is called The Express, and one (a cheaper one) The Pioneer. The Pioneer gets first to the mountain, and waits for the Express people to come up; both sets of passengers being conveyed across it at the same time. ”

“ The boats that use the canal have to be dragged through and up the sluices close to the banks, by large windlasses, whereby they are brought into still water by a very tedious process. [236]
The canal is largely used for passenger traffic, but the rate of progress seldom exceeds 25 to 30 miles a day, and is often under 20. The greater part of the work has been expended in the simple labour of constructing embankments, and not, as in the case of the Panama and Suez Canals, in digging a deep channel. ”

“ The bank of the canal forms a charming promenade of about six miles from its junction with the Dee to the Aqueduct, abounding with interesting and picturesque scenery. Here and there snug little white cottages, peeping from among the surrounding trees, decorate and embellish the sides and recesses of some of the eminences; while the tops are dotted with the little mountain sheep, scarcely distinguishable from the white stones that are scattered upon their summits. The banks of the canal are ornamented with trees, and embellished with bridges, &c. ”

“ A canal does not lie in a valley from end to end like a river. It would require greater horse-power to tow one loaded barge 6 miles an hour on normal canal water than to tow a string of three or even four such craft hawsered 50 or more feet apart at the pace of 31⁄2 miles. ”

“ But where the canal had to cross a bay, or where the bank of the lake was not high and steep enough to serve as one side of the canal, two parallel dykes were constructed and the water flowed between them. The remains of these ancient drainage works in 354the bed of the lake are of two sorts. In the first place we see them as low broad mounds, about five feet high and fifty to sixty yards wide, stretching for long distances across the plain, either in an unbroken line or with occasional gaps. ”

“ The canal is navigated by vessels of 70 tons, and steamers of 45 tons and 25 h.p. The traffic amounts to about 4000 vessels per annum. It was completed in 1868 at a cost of 81,500l.
The Kinda Canal rises 171 feet by fifteen locks to a level of 277 feet above the sea. The length of the navigation is 491⁄2 miles, of which 223⁄4 is either artificial canal or trained river. The length of the locks is 90 feet 6 inches, breadth 18 feet 4 inches, and depth over sill 4 feet 101⁄2 inches. The traffic is from 3000 to 4000 vessels per annum. ”

“ Between the lake and Brito one small stream is taken into the canal by a receiving weir. The river Tola and several small streams coming from the north are to be passed under the canal, and along its lower portion there will be ditches to intercept the surface drainage, which is inconsiderable, and convey it to the sea. ”

“ A vessel on a canal is independent of winds, tides, and currents, and is not exposed to the delays attending conveyances by land: and with regard to safety, there can be no competition. The injuries to which commodities are exposed when transported by land, and the dangers to which they are liable when conveyed by natural waters, are rarely experienced on canals. ”

“ Monday morning, bright and early, found us on the smooth, slippery surface of the canal. “Us” here includes, in addition to Bill and myself, my two younger brothers, Jack and Fred, and also Dutchy Van Syckel and Reddy Schreiner, neighbors of ours. It was the custom at the first of December every year to drain out most of the water in the canal, in order to prevent possible injury to the canal banks from the pressure of the ice. ”

“ The canal was carried along between its two banks, high above the rest of the country, and here and there, at moderate distances from each other, wind mills were to be seen busy at work pumping up water from the drains in the fields, and pouring it into the canal. The fields were covered with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and here and there were parties of men mowing the grass or loading the new-made hay into boats, that lay floating in the small canals which bordered the fields. ”

“ The canal bordering the old market-place is lined with a long row of women, alternately beating linen upon boards and rinsing it in the water. We know that they are laughing and chattering, though we cannot hear them ”