───────────────────────────────┬───────────┬───────────────────── │ Length of │ Canal. │Navigation.│ Size of Craft. ───────────────────────────────┼───────────┼───────────────────── │ miles. │ ft. in. ft. in. ├───────────┼────────────────────── Aire and Calder │ 80 │ 212 0 by 22 0 Bridgwater │ 97 │ 84 0 ” 15 0 Bude[52] │ 35½ │ 104 0 ” 29 6 Gloucester │ 16 │ 163 0 ” 29 6 Leicester and Northampton │ 24 │ 88 0 ” 15 6 Louth │ 11¾ │ 87 6 ” 15 6 Medway Navigation │ 7¾ │ 86 0 ” 23 0 Regent’s and Hertford Union │ 10¼ │ 90 0 ” 15 0 Stort │ 13½ │ 100 0 ” 13 6 Thames and Medway │ 9 │ 94 8 ” 22 8 Trent River │ 72 │ 90 0 ” 15 0 ───────────────────────────────┼───────────┼───────────────────── Total[53] │ 306¾ │ ───────────────────────────────┴───────────┴───────────────────── Here then we have only 306¾ miles of canal suited to the passage of craft 84 feet by 12 feet, including the river Trent, which, of itself, contributes 72 miles to the total. In other words, only about twenty per cent. of the total independent waterways of the country can admit craft that would enable them to realise the full value of economical transport. Of the remainder, a great part of the navigations vary from 60 to 75 feet in width, so that presumably they could be adapted for the larger sizes of craft without very material expense. [Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE CANALS AND NAVIGATIONS IN ENGLAND AND WALES.] The canals and navigations managed by public trusts are in a decidedly better position. Commencing with the noble Severn, which, for a great part of its canalised course of forty-four miles, admits craft 270 feet by 35 feet, there are the Thames (from London Bridge), the Lea, the Weaver, and the Wye, which are suited to craft of considerable dimensions, but these for the most part can hardly be described as canals proper.