Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

FORTH AND CLYDE CANAL.
583
1839 is £5,145 9s. This sum exceeds that drawn
from the same source for any previous year ; the only
year approaching it being that of 1834, when the nett
proceeds from passengers were £5,046 15s.
Improvements as to the powers and the rates of
motion on the canal, seem nearly to keep pace with
the rapid increase of facility in land-communication
by the construction of railways. Horse-power, as
yet, has alone been in practice along the banks, and
long was applied in a manner which would now be
esteemed loutish and clumsy. Sailing vessels were
dragged along at a snail's pace ; and even the boats
for the conveyance of passengers were dragged with
a speed of little more than 4 miles an hour. About
eight or ten years ago, long, narrow, shallopy iron-
boats, so confined as to admit of only a sitting pos-
ture to passengers, and so constructed as to take !
very slender hold of the water, were substituted
for "the heavy and cumbrous, though internally com-
modious and agreeable boats which preceded them ;
and, in consequence of their lightness, and of the
adoption of very short stages for the horses, they
have currently hurried along at nearly or altogether
the double of the old speed. All that horses can
do, however, will not suit the taste for rapid career-
ing which has been created by rail-road locomotion.
So early as November, 1 789, the canal was the proud
scene of experiment for the first steam-boat which
was ever constructed above the size of a model ;
and some vears later, it was the arena of experi-
ments in steam-boat navigation, from which Fulton
learned the lesson which lie afterwards successfully
practised in America. At various subsequent dates,
particularly about ten or twelve years ago, strenuous
exertions and astutely directed experiments were
made to adapt propulsion by steam to the fragile
structure and precarious embankments of the canal;
but all were attended by some degree of failure ; and,
even had they been successful, they would have
achieved a rate of speed far below what the fidgety
and flighty and swift-winged spirit of the age has
come to demand. A total new set of experiments,
tending to a great and wonderful revolution in canal
navigation, was commenced some time ago, and, in
September, 1839, were brought to a decisively fa-
vourable termination. A light railway having been
formed alongside of the towing-path of a part of
the canal, near Lock 16, a locomotive engine of
moderate power was set on it, and applied, as a
substitute for horses, in towing, at various rates of
speed, vessels of all the different classes which fre-
quent the canal. By experiments conducted with
scrupulous accuracy, and often repeated, it was as-
certained that, even with the imperfect preparations
which had been made, the passage-boats may, with-
out injury to the banks, be towed at rates varying
from 19.1 to 19.25 miles per hour, and that heavy
sea-going vessels may, with great ease, be con-
veyed at the utmost speed consistent with the
conservation of the slopes. On the 11th September,
1839, grand and final experiments were made under
the eye of the governor, the manager, and part of
the committee of the canal company, and several
professional and scientific gentlemen, and w r ere con-
ducted, as the precurrent experiments had been,
under the superintendence of Mr. M'Neil, civil en-
gineer. The locomotive engine was attached suc-
cessively to passenger-boats, lightly and heavily
laden, — to sloops, single and in pairs, — and to a
string of nine miscellaneous sailing-vessels. The
passenger-boats almost instantly shot along at the
rate of 16 and 17 miles per hour, and were main-
tained at that velocity with a very small expenditure
of steam. The waves which they produced — very
unlike what had been produced by other modes or
applications of power, or wnat theory and dogmatism
and mistaken investigation had predicted — did not
undulate, or rush along the banks, but proceeded
direct to the shore, quite or nearly at right angles
with the sides of the boats, and, so far from being
increased in volume proportionately to the increase
of velocity, were at all times smaller than those
which the boats plough up when they are drawn by
horses. The sloops, dragged singly, and two on a
line, varied from 70 to 90 tons, and were so laden
as to have 8 feet draught of water ; and they were
carried along at the maximum allowed velocity of
3k miles per hour, and but for prudential reasons
imposing restrictions, they could easily have been
made to feel a much higher speed. The chain of
9 vessels consisted of 7 sea-going schooners and
sloops, and 2 heavy-laden scows ; and they were
borne steadily along at the rate of 2i miles per
hour. While the expense of towing them sepa-
rately from the sea-lock to Port-Dundas, would be
about £27, that of dragging them with the locomo-
tive engine, exclusive of allowance for the use of
the railway, would not exceed 25 shillings. In every
case, the results of the experiments were perfectly
satisfactory. They left no doubt that velocities
suitable to all vessels were attainable, — that these
might now range from 2i to 20 miles per hour, —
and that, when the machinery and the management
should be matured, and become familiar by experi-
ence, they might probably be increased, with ease
and safety, to 25 or even 30 miles per hour. The
decided success of the experiments, necessarily made
under the disadvantageous circumstances attending
a first essay, drew from the Forth and Clyde canal
company a resolution that the principle of towing
by the locomotive steam-engine should be carried
immediately into practice. The line of the canal,
therefore, seems about to become the scene of a
striking and highly-useful novelty, — the combina-
tion of the bulky and ponderous transit peculiar to
a canal, or a river, with the lightness of motion and
the celerity of speed peculiar to a railway.
FORTINGAL, a very large and important parish,
occupying the chief part of the north-western divi-
sion of Perthshire. Quoad sacra, the parish is of
moderate dimensions; but quoad civilia. it measures,
in extreme length, about 40 miles ; in extreme
breadth, upwards of 30 miles ; in circumference,
along the sinuosities of its boundary-line, probably
130 miles or upwards; and in superficial area, nearly
450,000 imperial acres. It is bounded on the north
by the district of Badenoch in Inverness-shire ; on
the north-east by the parish of Blair- Athole ; on the
east by the parish of Dull ; on the south by the par-
ishes of Kenmore and Killin and a detached portion
of the parish of Weem ; and on the west by the par-
ishes of Glenorchy and Appin in Argyleshire, and the
district of Lochaber in Inverness-shire. The parish
is in every respect compact, with two remarkable
exceptions : it embosoms, nearly in its centre, a de-
tached part of Logierait, 4 j miles by 4 ; and it, at
the same time, has a detached part of its own, called
Bolfraeks, 4k miles by 2, lying 3£ miles east of the
south-eastern extremity of the main body. The
whole parish lies among the Grampians, and is ex-
ceedingly mountainous; and, in general, broadly
marked with the characteristic features of the High-
lands, — savage grandeur relieved by varying scenes
of romance and beauty, — towering elevations cleft
into ridges by torrents and ravines, — bleak alpine
wastes of heath alternated with sylvan braes and far-
stretching lakes, — scenes now sublime and now sub-
siding into softness, enlivened by bounding streams
and roaring cataracts. The extensive district, how-
ever, which constitutes the main body of the parish,