At the north-east extremity cf the last canal, com mences the Shrewsbury canal, which, for about one mile, is level. At Wombridge there is an inclined plane of 223 yards in length, and 75 feet fall. From the bottom of this to Longdon, a distance of 4/ miles, there is a fall by lockage of 79 feet. Across the river Tern, at Long don, there is an aqueduct of cast iron, the first made for a navigable canal. From Longdon the canal pro ceeds by Roddington to the neighbourhood of Atcham, where it passes a tunnel 970 yards long, and afterwards along the base of Haughmond Hill, and the north bank of the Severn, to Shrewsbury. The distance from Long don is 12 miles, and level. The chief use of this canal is to supply the town of Shrewsbury with coal. Its act is 33 Geo. III. Thomas Telford was the engineer em ployed for the aqueduct and tunnel, and completing the canal.
The Shropshire and Shrewsbury canals, together, form a general line of communication through a popu lous and industrious district, the description of which has led us to pass, in regard to locality, a work of the Mar quis of Stafford. From the bottom of the Rockwardine Wood inclined plane, a short canal of seven miles has been constructed by that nobleman to Pave Lane, near Newport, with a branch, on a higher level, to his lime works at Lillieshall, which formerly communicated with the main line by pits, but now by an inclined plane.
From Shrewsbury northwards to the rivers Dee and Mersey, the country is intersected by the Ellesmere ca nal, an arm from which, under the name of the Mont gomeryshire, occupies the upper part of the Vale of the Severn; but as this sort of navigation is not yct uncon nected with the Severn, and much employed in the in tercourse with Liverpool, it seems most proper to refer its description to the canal communicating with the river 'Mersey.
Abrth-west District.-7'he ilfer8ey.
Th*e extensive basin of country facing that part of the Irish Sea %%Ilia occupies the space between the north ern coast of Wales, and the county of Cumberland, is bounded on the north-east by the range of elevated ground extending from Derbyshire to Cumberland ; on the south-west, by the mountains of Wales. Its middle rises gently through a rich country to the central plains of England. The hills of Wales and Cumberland pro duce slate and mines of copper ; within these is a basin of lime-stone producing abundance of lead and zinc ; next comes immense strata of coal, and its accompanying iron-stone, skirting the whole basin, and to the north east especially, expanding over such a vast extent of country as to appear altogether inexhaustible. The middle tract is covered with a sheet of red marly sand stone, containing also vast beds of rock-salt, plaster stone, and potters' earth. These natural productions
have made this district the scat of manufactures ; and the foreign trade having introduced cotton and other co lonial produce, the various manufactures of the former material are here more extensively pursued than perhaps in any other part of the world.
The seaport of Liverpool is the great market for the labours of all this district, and the focus of an immense inland navigation, whereby water communications lvave been formed to the borders of North Wales, to the Se vein, the Thames, the Trent, the various branches of the Humber, and into Westmoreland. By nneans of these, and their numerous ramifications, a communica tion is formed, not only with every town of atiy note, to every scene of mining and manufacturing industry, but eVCD through a vast extent of country purely agri cultural.
Along the shore of Wales itself We only find the Menai Strait partaking of the nature of inland naviga tion. It separates the island of Anglesea from Carnal. vonshire. It is navigable for large vessels, though there arc bars at its extremities. Spring tides rise about 21 feet. Slates from the quarries above Bangor and Car narvon, being the chief object of trade, have led to the construction of iron rail-roads, with several inclined planes.
On the eastern frontier of Wales, from Shrewsbury northwards to the river Mersey, the country is inter sected by the Ellesmere and Chester canal, which con sists of two great lines crossing each other near the town of Ellesmere, at nearly right angles. These lines pass through the counties of Salop, Denbigh, Flint, and Chester, and will, when completed, form a junction of the three great rivers, Severn, Dee, and Mersey. This is perhaps the only instance, in England, in which a canal of great extent was undertaken chiefly for agricultural purposes, and where the supply of towns and manufac tories was a secondary consideration. Coal, lime, slate, and iron-stone, lie along the skirts of the NVelch moun tains, and the extensive and populous agricultural dis tricts to the south and east create a constant demand for these articles. The more remote manufacturing dis triets in Stafford, Salop, and Lancashire, are markets for agricttltural products; and the ports of Liverpool and Bristol furnish articles frorrv foreign countries. Aware of these circumstances, the principal land owners of the adjacent districts, in 1792, formed a great company, and in 1793 the first act was obtained. During the prdgress of the works, several other acts have been found neces sary, and by the last, the Chester canal to Nantwich was united to this, and made a joint stock.