III.

Passengers can be profitably transported by canal, at a speed not exceeding nine miles an hour, exclusive of delays at locks, at the rate of one penny per head per mile. The average fares charged upon the Manchester railway are at the rate of 1-84/100d. per head per mile, the average speed being twenty miles an hour.

To transport passengers at the rate of ten miles an hour on a railway, would cost very little less than the greater speed of twenty miles an hour, so that a railroad could not enter into competition on equal terms with a canal by equalising the speed.

The canal between Kendal and Preston measures 57 miles: passengers are transported upon it between these places at the average speed of a mile in 6-1/2 minutes, or 9-1/4 miles an hour nearly, exclusive of delays at locks. The fare charged is at the average rate of a penny a mile. There are eight locks, rising 9 feet each, and a tunnel 400 yards long, through which the boat is tracked by hand; the tunnel requires 5 minutes, and the locks from 25 to 28 minutes, in descending, and 45 to 48 minutes in ascending.

Similar boats are worked on the Forth and Clyde, and the Union canals in Scotland, and on the Paisley and Johnstone canal at nearly the same fares.