_The Holstein Canal_ was begun in 1777, and was completed on the 4th of May, 1785, but was opened in 1784. The cost of the undertaking was 2,512,432 rix dollars. There are six sluices, which cost 70,000 rix dollars each. This canal, on the side of the Baltic, commences about three English miles north of Kiel, at a place called Holtenau, where there is a sluice, another at Knoop, and a third at Rathmansdorf, till it comes to the Flemhude Lake, which is the highest point; and from this lake, on the side of Rendsburg, there are three other sluices—one at Königsford, another at Kluvensiek, and the last at Rendsburg. These are on what is called the Upper Eyder, and the Lower Eyder is from Rendsburg to its mouth, running by Tonningen, below which place it falls into the sea between Eyderstadt and Dithmarschen. The distance is about 100 English miles, and vessels must either sail or tide it, or both; whilst from Rendsburg to Holtenau, nearly at the mouth of Kiel Bay, upon the Baltic, it is only about 25 English miles, which can be navigated in all weathers, except during a strong frost, as horses can be had, if required, at fixed rates. The vessels are let through a sluice in little more than eight or ten minutes each. For each sluice they pay only 4 schillings Danish, or about so many pence English. The surface breadth of this canal is 100 feet, and at the bottom 54 feet Danish measure, and the depth is at least 10 feet throughout. Vessels can pass through the sluices 100 feet in length, 26 feet in breadth, and 9 feet 4 inches draught of water, Danish measure, and which, for the regulation of the British merchant and shipowner, as well as the master, it may be observed, corresponds in English measure to vessels of 95 feet 4 inches length; 24 feet 9 inches breadth; and 9 feet depth. An increase and improvement of the waterways of Germany is looked upon as a pressing present necessity by many, and provision has been made for the commencement of three great canals—the connection of the Baltic with the North Sea, of the Spree with the Oder, and of the Ems with the Rhine. The first mentioned is to be built chiefly from military considerations, so that the German ironclads can get from Kiel to the Atlantic. The two others are to be constructed for commercial purposes. In connection with these there will also be canals built from the Rhine to the Elbe, and from the Oder to the Silesian Mountains. The agricultural interest very strongly opposed the Spree-Oder and Ems-Rhine Canal, because they feared the foreign grain would be more plentifully brought into the empire thereby, but their opposition was not successful. Besides these works the river Weser is being deepened, and a new channel has been constructed between Bremen and the sea—a distance of about 50 miles.