DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20917#0287
excursion to dun dry. 247
reduced small enough to be raised with cranes by-
sour men, into the carts which are conveyed up
the lides os the banks on stages, by the operation
of steam-engines erected on the verge of the
canal, that turn several wheels, and those two
others, with chains of vast length and Strength,
round them, which by their revolutions lower,
, empty, and raise the filled carts attached to the
chains.
The variety of strata in the canal between the
Bath road and Rownham meads are highly in-
teresting. Part coniists of fine sand, almost as
bright as vermilion, others of a chocolate-coloured
rock, connected in some instances with a buff-
coloured. It is the latter which cannot be broken
without the use of gunpowder, or infinite labour,
by wedges. And there is, besides, a lead-coloured
clay, and some gravel.
The excavation made through the rocks, though
attended with great difficulty, has saved the pro-
prietors a very considerable lum, as the stone was
immediately used for the walls of the canal ; and
indeed this rock, cut perpendicular, serves as a
wrall sor at least one quarter of a mile. The sand
is admirably calculated for mixing mortar; and
the company had merely to burn their lime,
which they were preparing to do on the spot
when I saw the works.
r 2, A tern-
reduced small enough to be raised with cranes by-
sour men, into the carts which are conveyed up
the lides os the banks on stages, by the operation
of steam-engines erected on the verge of the
canal, that turn several wheels, and those two
others, with chains of vast length and Strength,
round them, which by their revolutions lower,
, empty, and raise the filled carts attached to the
chains.
The variety of strata in the canal between the
Bath road and Rownham meads are highly in-
teresting. Part coniists of fine sand, almost as
bright as vermilion, others of a chocolate-coloured
rock, connected in some instances with a buff-
coloured. It is the latter which cannot be broken
without the use of gunpowder, or infinite labour,
by wedges. And there is, besides, a lead-coloured
clay, and some gravel.
The excavation made through the rocks, though
attended with great difficulty, has saved the pro-
prietors a very considerable lum, as the stone was
immediately used for the walls of the canal ; and
indeed this rock, cut perpendicular, serves as a
wrall sor at least one quarter of a mile. The sand
is admirably calculated for mixing mortar; and
the company had merely to burn their lime,
which they were preparing to do on the spot
when I saw the works.
r 2, A tern-