The Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which was commenced in 1770 and completed in 1816, is one of the most important lines of navigation in the United Kingdom, connecting, as it does, the Irish Sea at Liverpool with the German Ocean at Hull. The works were extended over a period of about forty-one years, and cost altogether 1,200,000_l._ The course of the canal from Leeds is _viâ_ the Abbey of Kirkstall, Calverley, Woodhouse, Apperley Bridge, Shipley, Bingley, Skipton, Burnley, Blackburn, Wigan, and so on to Liverpool. It is the longest canal in Great Britain, and in some respects, the most remarkable. It has many important works of art on its course, the summit level of which is reached at an elevation of 411 feet above the Aire at Leeds, 41 miles from that town. At Foulridge there is a tunnel 1640 yards in length, 18 feet high, and 17 feet wide. Near to this tunnel are two reservoirs for the supply of the canal. They cover an area of 104 acres, and store up 12,000 cubic yards of water. The canal is carried on aqueducts across the Aire, the Colne Water, the Brown, the Calder, the Henbarn, the Derwent Water, and the Roddlesworth Water. The total length of the navigation is 127 miles, and the total lockage 844 feet 7½ inches, while the canal basin at Liverpool is 56 feet above low-water mark on the river Mersey. The canal has several important feeders or branches.[49] KENNET AND AVON CANAL. The Kennet and Avon Canal starts from the port of Bristol and runs to Bath, Dundas (for the Somersetshire Coal Canal), Bradford-on-Avon, Semington (for the Wilts and Berks Canal), Devizes, Honeystreet, Pewsey, Burbage, Hungerford, Newbury, Reading, where it joins the Thames for Henley, Marlow, Maidenhead, Windsor, Staines, and London. The distance from Bristol to Bath is 15 miles, from Bath to Newbury 57 miles, from Newbury to Reading 18½ miles, and from Reading to London 74 miles. The river Avon, from Bristol to Bath, will admit of barges being worked carrying 90 tons when the water is high, but in low water this weight would be reduced to 50 or 60 tons, in consequence of the want of cleansing and dredging. This part of the navigation is under an Act of Parliament, 10 Queen Anne, 1711, and is to be free and open for ever upon payment of toll.