will be 600 feet by 80 feet, the middle one 350 feet by 50 feet, and the smallest one 150 feet by 30 feet. These three locks will be separated by concrete piers 30 feet wide, on which will be placed the hydraulic machinery for opening and closing the gates. Besides the ordinary gates, there will be provided for each lock at Eastham an outer pair of storm-gates that will be closed only in rough weather. These gates will shut from the outside against the lock sills, and, by resisting the force of wind and waves, will protect the ordinary tidal gates from being forced open. The lock gates throughout will be made of a wood obtained from British Guiana, and known as _greenheart_. This timber is the product of a large tree (_Nectandra Rodiœi_) belonging to the laurel family. It is a very heavy and close grained wood, the strength and endurance of which have been proved many years ago by its use in ship-building, etc., and some of the logs imported for the canal are remarkably fine specimens, being 22 inches square and 60 feet long. A pair of the largest gates weigh about 500 tons. The gates of the tidal locks at Eastham will all be open for half the time of each tide, when there will be a depth of water, above the sills, greater by 11 feet than that of any dock in Liverpool or Birkenhead. [Illustration: FIG. 137.—_Manchester Ship Canal Works, Runcorn._ ] The way in which the difficulty is overcome of crossing the several busy lines of railway that intersect the course of the new canal, so that their traffic shall not be impeded, is one of special interest in this bold scheme. The London and North Western Railway crosses the Mersey at Runcorn by a bridge that leaves a clear headway of 75 feet at high water, and it was determined that this headway should be maintained in the bridges over the canal. The use of swing bridges on lines of railway over which trains are constantly passing being out of the question, it is necessary that the railways be carried over the canal at the required height. It is accordingly laid down in the Act of Parliament that before the Canal Company can cut the existing lines of railway it shall construct permanent bridges, and carry over them lines rising by gradients not exceeding 1 in 135, and not only so, but these deviation lines must be previously given up to the several railway companies for six months to be tried experimentally in that period for goods traffic. The cost of constructing these deviation lines, which, in all, will not be far short of 12 miles of new railway, will not be much less than £500,000. The traffic of the canal will probably have great feeders at certain points in the other canals and the railway lines that reach it. For instance, the Bridgewater Canal, now incorporated with the greater undertaking, will bring traffic from the Staffordshire potteries, the river Weaver brings salt laden barges from Cheshire, and at other points the railways will bring the produce of the excellent coal fields of