Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/163

Rh parallel with, and on the south side of, the Picts Wall, by Burgh; thence across the marshes bordering the Solway Firth, by Drumburgh Castle and Glasson, to the Firth, into which it falls at Fisher's Cross, near Bowness. The length is eleven miles and a quarter, with a rise of 10 feet by nine locks. From Carlisle, where there is a commodious basin, the canal continues on one level four miles; in the next mile and a quarter there is a fall of 46 feet by six locks; thence to Fisher's Cross is level, and into the sea there is a fall of 24 feet by three equal locks of 8 feet each, with basins between them, called the Upper and Lower Solway Basins. The first basin from the sea is on a level with high water at lowest neaps; and the long pool, or level, of the third lock is 6 inches above an extraordinary tide (15 feet 6 inches above high water at lowest neaps) which occurred in January, 1796.

The estimate for this canal and basins was made by Mr. W. Chapman, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and amounted to the sum of £73,392. The act for making it is entitled,  'An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal from, or from near, the city of Carlisle, to the Solway Firth, at or near Fisher's Cross, in the parish of Bowness, in the county of Cumberland,'  by which the proprietors, consisting of three hundred and four persons, amongst whom were the Earl of Lonsdale, Lord Viscount Lowther, Sir James Graham, Sir William Musgrave, Sir Hew Dairymple Ross, and Sir Joseph Dacre Appleby Gilpin, were incorporated by the name of "The Carlisle Canal Company." The canal is supplied with water from the Rivers Eden and Caldew, and from a reservoir on the south side of the canal, in the parishes of Grinsdale and Kirkandrews-upon-Eden; and the company were authorized to raise £80,000 among themselves, in sixteen hundred shares of £50 each, with an additional sum of £40,000 among themselves, or by the admission of new subscribers, or on mortgage of the undertaking, or upon promissory notes under the common seal of the company. The work is under the management of a committee of nine proprietors, possessed of at least ten shares each, who are chosen annually.

The object of this canal was to form a communication between the sea and the city of Carlisle, shorter and safer than the navigation of the Solway Firth and the River Eden afforded, and to