On some parts of this navigation some astonishing works have been constructed, but the limits to which our work is prescribed, precludes the possibility of enumerating them; however we must not omit to notice the well known aqueduct over the Dee at Pont-y-Cysylte. This stupendous work is carried over the river, at an elevation of 125 feet above its bed, on nineteen pairs of stone pillars, 52 feet asunder. The trough through which the vessels pass is 320 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 6 feet deep, and it is entirely composed of cast iron plates. There is also another very large aqueduct over the River Ceiriog, which is built of stone; it is two hundred yards in length, and is supported on ten arches, at an elevation of 65 feet above the river.
This navigation, from the immediate connection it has with the Rivers Mersey and Dee, and with the Montgomeryshire Canal, and the communication it has, by means of collateral cuts and the Ruabon Branch Railway, with the mineral districts to which they severally extend, and the fertile agricultural parts of North Salop and the county palatine of Chester, through which it winds its way, is of first rate importance; and it will doubtless increase in value when the desirable junction with the Grand Trunk Canal has been effected.
ENGLISH AND BRISTOL CHANNELS SHIP CANAL.
6 George IV. Cap. 199, Royal Assent 6th July, 1825.
THE parliamentary line of this intended ship canal, commences in the English Channel at Beer Roads, Seaton Bay, whence it takes a north-eastwardly course, skirting the shore, to the village of Seaton; thence, running parallel with the Axe River, to Colyford, where it crosses the River Coly, a mile south of the town of Colyton; thence continuing in the vale of the Axe, by Whitford, to the River Yarty, which it crosses by an aqueduct; thence half a mile west of the town of Axminster, and across the Little River Kilbridge to Hurtham, where it quits the valley and proceeds northwards a mile east of Chard, to its summit level. Hence its course is over a flat and uninteresting country for the space of
