Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/365

 greatly retarded. Besides this deficiency, the company were only able to borrow £14,182 on mortgage, which sum, with the amount actually paid by the subscribers, had all been expended on the works, they therefore obtained, in 1800, a second act, entitled, An Act for enabling the Huddersfield Canal Company to finish and complete the Huddersfield Canal; and for amending the Act, passed in the Thirty-fourth Year of the Reign of his present Majesty,for making and maintaining the said Huddersfield Canal. By this second act the committee are empowered to make calls, from time to time, not exceeding £20 per share in the whole, and they may raise, by new shares, or on promissory notes payable at distant times, and bearing lawful interest, any sum or sums necessary for completing the said canal, not exceeding in the whole, the sum of £274,000, mentioned in the first recited act.

The work being thus supplied with funds, proceeded towards completion; but the cost and difficulties attendant on its execution were so much beyond calculation, that the proprietors were, six years afterwards, compelled to apply a third time to parliament, and obtained, in 1806, another act, bearing as title, An Act to enable the Huddersfield Canal Company to raise a further Sum of Money for the Discharge of their Debts, and to finish and complete the Huddersfield Canal, and for amending the several Acts passed for making and maintaining the said Canal.

This canal, which is fitted for small craft of 7 feet wide, and such as navigate upon the Staffordshire and southern canals, and what Dupin calls of the narrow section, is capable of passing boats with twenty-four tons burthen; and, by a reference to the map, it will be seen that it commences on the south of the town of Huddersfield, and pursues a south-west direction, winding its course past Slaithwaite, nearly parallel with one of the branches of the River Colne, for the distance of seven miles and a half which river it crosses in three places by appropriate aqueducts, and, by an ascent of 436 feet, distributed among forty-two locks, it arrives, near Marsden, at the summit level, which is higher than that of any other canal in the kingdom, being at an elevation of 656 feet above the level of the sea; the summit level is thence continued for nearly half a mile, when the canal enters that extensive chain of mountains well known to travellers going from Manchester to