Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1890 — A Queer Canal. [ARTICLE]

A Queer Canal.

The strangest canal in the world is a oattal sixteen miles long between Worsley and St. Helens, in the north of England, and is underground from end to end. In Lancashire the coal mineß 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 mine* connected and drained at the sabsjt 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 ea*k other without difficulty.