CARDIFF is one of the busiest and most rapidly growing towns in South Wales. The population rose from 2,000 to upwards of 10,000 between 1801 and 1841 ; this increase has been chiefly owing to the shipment of the coal and iron from Merthyr Tydfil and its neighbourhood. The Glamorganshire canal, finished in 1798, was for many years the chan nel by which this produce reached the coast; but in 1840 the Taff railway was opened as an additional means of conveyance. The river, the canal, and the railway run nearly side by side, and terminate at Cardiff. While the railway was under construction, the late Mar quess of Bute, the owner of a large amount of property in this neighbourhood, conceived the project of forming a large harbour or dock between the town and the Bristol Channel on a piece of waste ground belonging to himself. The dock, called the Bute Dock, and a ship canal leading thence to the sea, were opened about the same time as the railway. They form a work of great magnitude, on which a sum of 300,0001. has been expended. The entrance into the floating harbour from the sea is through sea-gates 45 feet in width ; the harbour or basin has an area of an acre and a half, and is fitted for the reception of large vessels. The main entrance.lock is at the
north end of this outer basin, and is 152 feet long by 86 feet wide. On passing this lock the ship canal is entered, which extends to Cardiff, 1,400 yards in length and 200 feet in width, comprising a great extent of fine wharfage, and varying in depth from 13 feet to 19 feet.
Since these facilities were afforded, the trade of the port has increased rapidly. The coals shipped coastwise in 1818 were 544,196 tons, and to foreign ports 115,604—being five! times as large a quantity in 1818 as in 1838. The value of the exports in 1818 was 729,094/. Few ports in Great Britain have increased more rapidly in the extent of their export trade than Cardiff. The number and tonnage of vessels registered as belonging to the port of Cardiff on the 31st of December, 1810, were 77 vessels, of 6,287 tons. The number and tonnage of vessels that entered and cleared at the port during the year 1819 were 9,061 ves sels, of 695,022 tons.