THE Commercial and A'gricultural Magazine.

No. XXIV.) JULY, 1801. AO

R———

A CONCISE ACCOUNT

OF INLAND NAVIGATION. LTHOUGH in this country Inland Navigations were af

firſt much oppoſed, yet their utility ſeems now to be univer- fally admitted; nor can it be denied that they facilitate thé com- munication between one part of the country and another, reduce the price of carriage, and enable the huſbandman and manu- faQurer to ſend their goods cheaper to market. The ancients were aware of theſe advantages; and even in Cïreece, where, from the country being peninſuiated by the ſea, canals. were not much wanted, we find that plans were on foot, and that ſome of the Roman Emperors attempted to cut through the iſthmus which joins the Peloponneſus to Greece; and we alſo find in Bæaotia traces of canals cut to carry of the water from lands which were overflowed., The aqueduéts of the Romans were a ſpecies of canal, and they had alſo many for draining the water from overflowed grounds.

Egypt, which now ſo much calls our attention, contained from the-rèmoteſt antiquity a number of canals dug to receive and diſtribute the waters of the river Nile at the time of the inun- dation’; but the great projet of a canal to communicate between the Nile and the Red Sea, deſerves more particular attention. It was, as we are told by Diodorus Siculus, begun by Necos and continued by Darius, but laid aſide from a fear that it would lay Egypt under water. Ptolemy the ſecond, however, completed the undertaking, and cauſed to be conſtrued a dam or fluice, Which opened to give a paſſage and immediately cloſed again: this canal was four days journey in jength. By means of it the rich commodities of India, Perſia, Arabia, and the coaft of Africa, were conveyed from the Red Sea to the Nile down that river to Alexandria, and thence ſhipped to the various parts of Europe. After the reign of Ptolemy, this canal ſeems to have been negle&ed, but was again opened by one of the Califs in 635; and again negledted, ſo thai ſome traces of it alone remain. The canal of Alexandria, or, as the Arabs call it, of Faoua, has had better fortune, it was cut from a place now called Rhamanic to Alexandria, with intent to ſupply that city with- water. There was alſo a canal from Alexandria‘to Canopus, and a great variety of other canals for the purpoſes before mentioned.

But China has for a long ſeries of years been the chiet country for canals; ſcarcely a town or a village chat is not waſhed by the

Com.& Ag. Mag. Vol. B