Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/192

170 entitled,  'An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal from Loch Gilp to Loch Crinan, in the shire of Argyll.'  It commences at the point of Ardreshaig, in Loch Gilp; thence, by Oakfield, Craiglass, Auchinshellach and Leikachluan, to Loch Crinan, into which it falls near Duntroon Castle. It is nine miles and a half in length, and 12 to 15 feet deep; there are fifteen locks upon it, with a rise of 58 feet from Loch Gilp, and a fall of 59 feet to Loch Crinan. Mr. Watt surveyed the line, in the first instance, but Mr. John Rennie was afterwards appointed engineer, and we believe it was carried into execution under his direction.

The subscribers, at the time the act was obtained, consisted of two hundred and eighty-eight persons, amongst whom were the Duke of Argyle, the Marquesses of Tweedale and Lorne, Earl of Breadalbane, Lord Frederick and Lord J. Campbell, Lord Macdonald, Sir A. Edmonstone, Sir J. Sinclair, Sir A. Campbell, and Sir James Riddell, Baronets, and Sir J. Campbell, Knight, besides nearly fifty other gentlemen bearing the last-mentioned name of Campbell. They were incorporated by the name of "The Company of Proprietors of the Crinan Canal," and empowered to raise among themselves the sum of £120,000, in two thousand four hundred shares of £50 each, and an additional sum of £30,000, should the former sum prove insufficient, or they may borrow the last-mentioned sum on mortgage of the undertaking, or by granting annuities on lives. The work is under the management of a director and fourteen other persons, who are called, "The Governor and Directors of the Company of Proprietors of the Crinan Canal." The width of the canal and towing path is not to exceed 450 feet, except where the canal is raised higher or cut deeper than 16 feet from the surface of the ground.