Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1889 — A Queer Canal. [ARTICLE]

A Queer Canal.

The strangest canal in the world is a canal sixteen miles long between Worsley and St. Helens, in the north of England, and is underground from end to end. In Lancashire the coal mines are very extensive, half the country being undermined, and many years ago the duke of Bridgewater’s managers thought they could save money by transporting the coal underground instead of on the surface. So the oanal was constructed, the mines connected and drained at the same time. Ordinary canalboats are used, but the power is furnished by men. On the roof of the tunnel arch are cross pieces, and the men who do the Work of propulsion lie on their backs on the coal and push with their feet against the cross.-bars on the roof. Six or eight men will draw a train of four or five boats, and as there are two divisions in the tunnel boats pass each other without difficulty.