The number of the _Annales de Travaux Publics_ of Belgium for August 1901 contains a detailed study of the Inland Navigation floating stock circulating in Belgium. This study is the work of Mr. ~Dehem~, Principal Engineer of the Ponts et Chaussées. It contains a description of the types of boats in use on the French and Belgian canals. These types of boats, built especially for these canals, are of no historic value. As they are seen frequently, however, on the Zuid-Willemsvaart (the canal from Maastricht to Bois-le-Duc), a brief description of these boats, called “Ballanten” in Holland, will not be out of place. They can be classified, as a rule, as follows[26]: ~A~) Baquets of Charleroi; ~B~) Walloon boats or “péniches”. [Sidenote: II 257] [Sidenote: II 265] The boat of group ~A~, called “Bak” in Flemish, is a parallelopipedon in shape. Its average length is 19.50 m.; its breadth, 2.60 to 2.65 m.; it draws from 0.35 m. to 0.40 m. when light and 1.80 m. when fully laden. With the latter draught its tonnage oscillates between 67 and 71 tons. This type of boat was introduced particularly for navigation on the Charleroi canal, of which the old small locks have a neat length of 19 metres and a breadth of 2.70 m. The clear height of the permanent bridges on this navigable highway varies from 2.65 m. to 3 metres. These boats cost from 4500 to 7500 francs. The boat of group ~B~, called “Waal” in Flemish, is also a box having the shape of a parallelopipedon with a flat bottom and nearly plane sides. According to the differences in shape of the bow and stern, these boats are known by different names, such as: 1ᵒ Tournai boat; 2ᵒ chaland; 3ᵒ bélandre; 4ᵒ pointu. It should be said, however, that the last two names should be assigned rather to old types and that the first two should be reserved for the large canal boats (_péniches_) generally built at present. The Tournai boat has the forward and after faces rounded and a quite marked curve in the vertical plane, so that the boat shows a curved stem called the _nose_. The forward face carries a bend called the moustache and has on top a wooden rail to support the tow line which is made fast to the towing bitt back of the nose. In the _chaland_, called also “Ballant”, the forward and after faces are nearly plane, the nose and moustache are slightly marked and the towing bitt is placed at the extreme forward end of the boat. As a rule, these boats are not very strongly built and their planking suffers a good deal through the sharp curves at bow and stern. Their shape is so determined that they shall exactly fill the locks and that they shall then have a maximum loading capacity, although it is altogether incomprehensible that, just in order to get a few more tons on board, the whole question of facility of towing should be entirely neglected. What is gained then in one way is doubly lost in another in high charges for towing.