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6 Conciſe Account of Tuland Navigation.[July

feá or a river, but has a canal. The great or royal canal is one of the moſt wonderful works of art: it employed thirty thouſand men for the‘ſpace of forty-three years to complete it. The Tength from ſouth to north, extending from the city of Canton to the northern boundary of the Empire, is between eight and nine hundred miles, the breadth is fifty feet, and the depth nine fect, it can conſequently take veſſels of conſiderable burthen, ſome of which have ſails, others oars, and others are towed. It paſſes forty-one large cities, and innumerable canals are cut into it to conne it with the rivers, lakes, and rivulets of the coun- try. Theſe canals are of the urmoſt‘benefit to China; and they are finiſhed and maintained in 2 very complete manner; the Guays are all faced with free fone, the bridges over it are innu- merable, and have ſome three, ſome five or more arches, the cen- tre of which is lofty, to permit barges or veſſels with maſts to paſs under. We are aſlured that there is a paſſage by canals almoſt from one end of the Empire to the other, for the length óf cighteen hundred miles, and that a paſlenger may: go from one end of the Empire to another by water, except in croſling one mountain. In ſhort the canals are the roads of China.

Nor are other parts of Aſia without theſe great conveniences, the countries between Delhi and the Pañſiat, in Hindoſtan, are ſupplied with water by a2 canal, which alſo anſwers the purpoſes of navigation; and Major‘Rennell mentions ſeveral other canals, one‘of which from the river Jummz is divided into ſeven ſtreams./

Let us now turù to Europe, and we ſhall find that Ruſlag although much more backward in civilization than moſt of the other European kingdoms, has, however, been very adive’ in chis ſpecies of improvement.

Peter the Great formed the plan of an inland navigation from Perſia to Peterſburgh, the new city he had juſt founded. The goods were to be brought by the Caſpian Sea to Aftrachan, and thence by the river Wolga, and a line of canals, into the river Meſta and the lake of Novogorod, and then into thé lake of Ladoga and the river Neva to Peterſburgh, a diſtánce of four hundred and fifty miles. He alſo planned a navigation from the Don to the Wolga, and another canal to the river Occa, and thus to efe a navigation to Moſcow, and afterwards a line of communication to Archangel; the completion of which was prevented by his death. He employed an Engliſhman, Captain Perry, as his engineer, who met with great oppolition from the nobles or boyars. The Czar’s death topped the works for a time, but they have moſt of them, with ſome improvements, been carried on by his ſucceſſors. The convenience for inland ‘navigation in Ruffia is wonderful, ic being poſlible to convey goods by water near four thouſand five hundred miles with only one intérruption of abouc fixty miles; this length is from the

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