The Sun.
London, England, 1828-09-20 00:00:00

GREAT DUTCH CANAL.

(From the Scotsman.)
We believe very little is known in Britain of
this canal. It is, however, one of the greatest
works of the kind in the world ; and our readers
will perhaps think the following details' respect-
ing it not uninteresting. They are derived from
engraved plans, with which we have been oblig-
ingly furnished by w. Bald, Esq. an eminent
scientific engineer.
The object of the canal is to afford a passage
for large vessels from Amsterdam to the sea.
This city has 40 feet of -water in the road in
front of its port, Io,AI, the Pampas or bar in the
Zuyder Zee, 5...,-ven miles below, has only a depth
of 10 and hence all ships of any consider-
able burden have to unload part of their cargoes
with lighters before they enter the port. As the
sea in question is full of shallows throughout, all
ordinary means of improving' the access to the
port were necessarily ineffectual ; and the resolu-
tion was therefore at length adopted of cutting a
canal from the town to the Helder, the northmost
point of the province of Holland. The distance
between these extreme points is 41 English miles,
but the length of the canal is about 50 The
breadth at the surface of the water is 124-1- Eng-
lish feet (120 Rhinland fit); the breadth at
bottom 36 ; the depth `2O feet 9 inches. Like
the Dutch canals, generally its level is that of the
high tides of th.'e sea, from which it receives its
supply of -water. The only locks it requires, of
coursc:, are two tide-locks at the extremities ; but
there are, besides, two sluices with flood gates in
the intermediate space. It has only 18 bridges
(draw-bridges) in its whole length. The locks
and sluices are double, that is to say, there are
two in the breadth of the canal; and we learn
from Mr. Bald, that their construction and work-
manship are excellent. They are built of brick
for economy, but bands of limestone are inter-
posed at intervals, and these project about an
inch beyond the brick, to protect it from abra-
sion by the sides of the vessels. There is a
broad towing path on each side, and the canal
is wide enough to admit of one frigate passing
another.

The line which the canal follows may be easily
traced on a map of Holland. From the river
Ye at Amsterdam, it proceeds north to Pur-
merend, thence west to Alkmaar Lake, thence
north by Alkmaar to a point within two miles of
the coast, near Petten, and it continues to run
nearly parallel to the coast from this point to the
Helder, where it joins the sea, at the fine har-
bour of Niewediep, formed within the last thirty
years. At the latter place there is a powerful
steam-engine for supplying the canal with water
during neap tides, and other purposes. The
time spent in tracking vessels from the Helder
to Amsterdam, is 18 hours. The Helder point
is the only spot on the shores of Holland that
has deep water ; and it owes this advantage to
the Island of Texel
.opposite, Aich, by con-
tracting the communication between the German
Ocean and the Zuyder Zee to a breadth of al
mile, produces a current which scours and
deepens the channel. ImMediately opposite the
Helder there is 100 feet of water at high tides,
and at the shallowest part of the bar to the west-
ward there are 27 feet. In the same way, the
artificial mound which runs into the lake or
river Ye opposite Amsterdam, by contracting
the water-way to about 1000 feet, keeps a depth
of 40 feet in the port (at high water), while
above and below there is only 10 or 12.
The canal was begins .in 1819'; and finished
in 1825. The cost was estimated at ten or
twelve millions of florins, or about one million
sterling. If we compute the magnitude of this
canal by the cubic contents of its bed, it is the
greatest we believe in the world—unless some of
the Chinese canals be exceptions. The volume
of water which it contains when filled, or the
prism de remplissaige; is twice as great as that
of the New York Canal, or the Canal of Lan-
guedoe, and two and a half times as great as that
of the Caledonian Canal, if we include only
those parts of the latter which have been cut with
human labour. We have not heard what re-
turns it yields ; but we may safely assume that
for some years it will not be a profitable concern.
Even in Holiand, where interest is low, it would
require tolls to the amount of 50,0001. per annum
to cover interest and expellees. We find from
the Bulletin des Sciences, that 1982 ships
entered the port of Amsterdam in 1827. Most
of the small ones would probably take the old
route by the Zuyder Zce, but supposing 1,000
to have gone through the canal, it would be
necessary that they should pay 501. each of toll
for passing in and returning, to make up the sum
we have mentioned. With the heavy ships, hew-
ever, the saving of lighteraga3 would probably be
a full compensation for this expenditure. To
vessels leaving Amsterdam, which formerly were
often detained in the Zuyder Zee by adverse
winds for weeks, the canal must be extremely
useful.

We believe it is by no means unlikely but
what the country may expect, in a short time, to avail
itself of the valuable services of Earl GREY. His Lordship,
to be sure, is a Whig, but, then, he is a Whig of the ge-
nuine school of 1688.—Berks Chronicle.

good people
An impostor has been gulling the
of York with a strange story, that he has a live rat in his
stomach, which is most voracious in its appetite, and after
he has eaten or drank, a sound of eating or lapping can be
heard from hii inside, and the motion of the animal can
be perceived externally. Dr. FEYERAIAN examined the
fellow at Lynn, a few months ago, and he pronounces him
to he merely an impostor, and the whole to be produced by
ventriloquism'--Nottingham Review. •
Captain STAMER, of the 4th Royal Irish
Dragoon Guards, eldest son of Sir We. STAMM, Bart.
of Dublin, will shortly lead to the hymeneal altar the only
daughter of J. TostuNsoN, Esq. of Cliff Ville, Stafford-
shire.—Cork Southern Reporter.

•
ELOPEMENT.—in the beautiful village of
Ilathdrum, situate in the " Garden of Ireland," and
" Nosegay of the Universe," the county of Wicklow, there
dwelt not many days ago a lovely and beautiful creature,
named FANNY BY S.N7 ; she, some five or six yearn ago,
made One JoHN BYRNE the happiest man in liathdrum,
" and thereahour,,,, by giving him a legal claim-to all the
charms, with which nature had endowed her. JOHN
BVILNE s happiness %yes increased by his virtuous spouse
assuring him he was the father of three children, pos-
sessed of all their mother's beauty ;" but it has been re-
marked by some of the oldest and wisest philosophers, that.
happiness in this world is very uncertain, and poor 131-Il
was not doomed to be an exception. His avocations
obliged him to be ah.wut from his home two or three dip;
in
the
week ; the heart of Mrs. BYMNE was then unoccu-
pied—the moments she passed in his absence she considered
as lost—and, alas !
we grieve .to say it, one Mxcx KA VA-
NAG!! took a dirty a :vantage. of this circumstance. 'flie
lovely Mrs. Br NE was unable to resist the attentions of a
dashing young fellow, by whose eloquent tongue a rich
widow had been entrapped, and who, at the time, called
Link lord and master. We shall not detail circumstances
which way be better imagined than deactibed, but hasten
at once to the consequences. KAvANAGit abandoned. his
widow ; Mrs. DUANE her loving husband and lovely chil-
dren, and, with 50/ ballast in her pocket, she took bee
flight to Dublin. BYRNE, distracted by the loss of money
and wife, hastened up to the metropolis, and yesterday "of
ail days in the year" lie found, in Westmorland-street, his
frail spouse and her paramour, walking arm in arm most
ovinglytogether. They ran, her husband pursued, and
finally lodged them in the Head Police Office.—Dublin
-11,raing Register.