sively used in the arts. It serves for the fabrication of the tents and carpets of the Arabs, and for their wearing apparel. Cloth is also manufactured of it in Persia and other places. The most esteemed hair cames from Persia. It is divided into three qualities; black, red, and grey. The black is the dearest, and the grey is only worth half the red. Considerable quantities of camels' hair are exported from Smyrna, Constantinople, and Alexandria. It is used in the manufacture of hats, particularly by (Rees's Cyclopædia, art. Camelus.) the French. CAMLET, OR CAMBLET (Ger. and Du. Kamelot; Fr. Camelot; It. Ciambellotto; Sp. Camelote; Rus. Kamlot), a plain stuff, manufactured on a loom, with 2 treadles, as linens are. There are camlets of various colours and sorts; some wholly of goats' hair; others, in which the warp is of hair, and the woof half hair and half silk; others, again, in which both the warp and the woof are of wool; and, lastly, some, of which the warp is of wool and the woof of thread: some are striped, some watered, and some figured. CAMOMILE (Fr. Camomille; It. Camomilla; Sp. Manzanilla; Lat. Chamomilla), a well-known plant, whose flowers are used for medicinal purposes. Most of what is brought to the London market is grown about Mitcham, in Surrey. The imports, however, are not inconsiderable; as many as 26,120 lbs. of foreign camomile-flowers having been annually entered for consumption, at an average of the 3 years ending with 1841. The duty is 1d. per lb. CAMPHOR, OR CAMPHIRE (Ger. Kampfer; Du. Kamfer; Fr. Camphere; It. Canfora; Sp. Alcanfor; Rus. Kamfora; Lat. Camphora; Arab. and Pers. Kafoor; Mal. Kaafur). There are two descriptions of this valuable article, which must not be confounded. 1. Camphor of Commerce, or that met with in Europe, is obtained by boiling the timber of a species of laurel (Laurus Camphora), a tree found in the forests of Fokien, in China, near the city of Chinchew, and in certain localities in Japan. Most of the camphor imported into Europe comes from China; but a small quantity, considered of superior quality, comes from Japan by way of Batavia. The exports from Canton may be estimated at about 3,000 piculs, or 400,000 lbs.; and if to this we add the exports from Batavia of Japan camphor, amounting to about 500 piculs, the total annual exports will be about 466,000 lbs. It is brought to this country in chests, drums, and casks; and is in small, granular, friable masses, of a dirty white or greyish colour, very mach resembling half-refined sugar. When pure, the camphor of commerce has a strong, peculiar, fragrant, penetrating odour, and a bitter, pungent, aromatic taste. It is in reality a concrete essential oil. Camphor, when refined, is in thin hollow cakes of a beautiful virgin whiteness, and, if exposed to the air, totally evaporates. Great care is therefore requisite in packing camphor, to prevent serious loss. 2. Camphor, Malay, commonly called, to distinguish it from the last, camphor of Barus, from the port of Sumatra, where it is mostly shipped. It is a product of the Dryobalanops Comphora, a forest tree confined to Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay peninsula. It is found in concrete masses in the fissures of the wood there are, however, but very few trees that afford it; and those that do, only in small quantities. This species of camphor is more fragrant and less biting and pungent than that yielded by the laurel, and is in high repute among the Chinese, by whom it is almost wholly consumed. There is an immense disparity in the prices of the two species in China; the finest Chinese camphor being sometimes quoted at 30 dollars per picul, while the Malay camphor is quoted at 30 dollars per catty, making the price of the latter 100 times greater than that of the former! Malay camphor is wholly unknown in Europe as an article of trade. — (Private information.) CAMPHOR OIL (Malay, Minyak), a fragrant essential oil, obtained in large quantities by heating the wood of the Dryobalanops Camphora. It is nearly as cheap as spirits of turpentine, but is not held in any esteem by the Chinese. It might, perhaps, be profitably imported into England as a substitute for spirits of turpentine in the arts. and for medicinal purposes. We may add, that the timber of the Dryobalanops Camphora is not inferior to any produced in the countries where it grows, for the purposes of house and ship building. - (Private information, and Crawfurd's Indian Archipelago, vol. i. p. 516.) CAMWOOD, a red dyewood, first brought to Europe from Africa by the Portuguese. It is principally obtained from the vicinity of Sierra Leone. The colouring matter which it affords differs but little from that of ordinary Nicaragua wood, either in quality or quantity; and it may be employed with similar mordants. —--( Bancroft on Colours. See also Dampier, vol. ii. part ii. p. 58.) Camwood was worth, in the London market, in January 1843, from 171 to 201. a ton, duty (28. a ton) included. The imports in 1840 and 1841 amounted respectively to 787 and 956 tons. - (Parl. Paper No. 551. p. 496. Sess. 1842.) CANAL, CANALS. A canal is an artificial channel, filled with water kept at the desired level by means of locks or sluices, forming a communication between two or more places. Ancient Canals. (1.) Historical Sketch of Canals. The comparative cheapness and facility with which goods may be conveyed by sea, or by means of navigable rivers, seem to have suggested, at a very early period, the formation of canals. The best authenticated accounts of ancient Egypt represent that country as intersected by canals conveying the waters of the Nile to the more distant parts of the country, partly for the purpose of irrigation, and partly for that of internal navigation. The efforts made by the old Egyptian monarchs, and by the Ptolemies, to construct a canal between the MAP EXHIBITING HE 226 NAVIGABLE RIVERS, THE COMPLETED & PROFSED CANALS & RAIL-ROADS 30 Rod Sheep Haven A 25 Portrush Giants 60 Rathlin I. Light Hoved) W 40 Mull of Cantire Sanda Marbole Bengore Ha 620 Light Prop 54 Fair H 6 138 Miles 4 Bushmills Ballycastle Coleraine 48 1008 high 24 Girvan 24 (Fired) Two Light Ho 7 10 Campbeltown & Light Ho. Br.&Red Lanark Carmwath Caledonian N.Berwick Revolving 3 Peebles Edinburgh Haw Selkirks British Duns com Coldstream Railway 13 Holy I.20 10 Beacon 3 12. 16 9 Bailey Light Ho. Fixed 7 17 DUBLIN BAY 2 8 Nautical Miles Bank Poolbey Light 6 Ch.B.& W 5 13 B 5% 2 6 22 6 8 67 5 61 Kish Light Ship Three Lights/Fixed 9 5 10 9 8 55 Ness Castle 54 Southwell Northern Nottingham &Lincoln Ry Newarke Lincoln Sleaford G. Northern Sleaford Bingham Grantham Ashby de la Zouch Grantham Loughborough Spalding Bourne Melton Mowbray Great R, Soar Ramsey Huntingdon Sves use Great Northern Royston 5 Wells Red &Bright 10 Hasbro Sand. Light Vessel two Lights Cromer Light Ho (Revolving) 12. 23 Hasborough Light Ho! Fixed 53 Cromer Winterton L'Ho (Fired) R.Yare Norwich Red Sea and the Nile, are well known; and evince the high sense which they entertained of the importance of this species of communication. - (.1meilhon, Commerce des Egyptiens, p. 76.) Greece was too small a territory, too much intersected by arms of the sea, and subdivided into too many independent states, to afford much scope for inland navigation. Attempts were, however, made to cut a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth; but they did not succeed. The Romans did not distinguish themselves in canal navigation. Their aqueducts, the stupendous ruins of which attest the wealth and power of their founders, were intended to furnish supplies of water to some adjoining city, and not for the conveyance of vessels or produce. (2.) Chinese Canals.-In China, canals, partly for irrigation and partly for navigation, have existed from a very early period. The most celebrated amongst them is the Imperial or Grand Canal, commencing at Hang-tchou, near the mouth of the Tchingtang-chiang river in about lat. 30° 22' N., long. 119° 45′ E.; it then stretches north, and crossing the great rivers Yang-tse-Kiang and Hoang-ho, terminates at Lin-ting, ex the Eu-ho river, in about lat. 37 N., long. 116° E. The direct distance between the extreme limits of the canal is about 512 miles, but, including its bounds, it is above 650 miles in length; and as the Eu-ho, which is a navigable river, unites with the Pei-ho also navigable, an internal water-communication is thus established between Hang-tchou and Pekin across 10° of lat. But apart from its magnitude and utility, the Grand Canal does not rank high as a work of art. A vast amount of labour has, however, been expended upon it; for though it mostly passes through a flat country, and winds about to preserve its level, its bed is in parts cut down to a great depth, while in other parts it is carried over extensive hollows, and even lakes and morasses, on vast mounds of earth and stone. The sluices, which preserve its waters at the necessary level, are all of very simple construction, being merely intended to elevate or depress the height of the water by a few inches; as, excepting these, there is not a single lock or interruption to the navigation throughout the whole length of the canal. It is seldom more than 5 or 6 feet in depth, and in dry seasons is sometimes considerably less. The vessels by which it is navigated are sometimes rowed, and sometimes dragged by men, so that the navigation is for the most part slow. The canal is frequently faced with stone. The construction of this great work is usually ascribed to the Tartars, but the Chinese allege that it was merely repaired and renovated by the latter, and that it had been completed in the remotest period of their history. (Barrow's China, p. 335, &c.; La Lande, Canaux de Navigation, p. 529, &c.) (3.) Italian Canals. - The Italians were the first people in modern Europe that attempted to plan and execute canals. They were principally, however, undertaken for the purpose of irrigation; and the works of this sort executed in the Milanese and other parts of Lombardy, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, are still regarded as models, and excite the warm admiration of every one capable of appreciating them. In 1271, the Navilio Grande, or canal leading from Milan to Abbiate Grasso and the Tesino, was rendered navigable. — (Young's Travels in France, &c. vol. ii. p. 170.) (4.) Dutch Canals. -No country in Europe contains, in proportion to its size, so many navigable canals as the kingdom of the Netherlands, and particularly the province of Holland. The construction of these canals commenced as early as the twelfth century, when, owing to its central and convenient situation, Flanders began to be the entrepôt of the commerce between the north and south of Europe. Their number has since been astonishingly increased. "Holland," says Mr. Phillips, in his History of Inland Navigation," is intersected with innumerable canals. They may be compared in number and size to our public roads and highways; and as the latter with us are continually full of coaches, chaises, waggons, carts, and horsemen going from and to the different cities. towns, and villages; so, on the former, the Hollanders in their boats and pleasure barges, their treckschuyts, and vessels of burden, are continually journeying and conveying commodities for consumption or exportation from the interior of the country to the great cities and rivers. An inhabitant of Rotterdam may, by means of these canals, breakfast at Delft or the Hague, dine at Leyden, and sup at Amsterdam, or return home again before night. By them, also, a most prodigious inland trade is carried on between Holland and every part of France, Flanders, and Germany. When the canals are frozen over, they travel on them with skaits, and perform long journeys in a very short time; while heavy burdens are conveyed in carts and sledges, which are then as much used on the canals as on our streets. "The yearly profits produced by these canals are almost beyond belief; but it is certain, and has been proved, that they amount to more than 250,000l. for about 400 miles of inland navigation, which is 6251. per mile, the square surface of which mile does not exceed two acres of ground; a profit so amazing, that it is no wonder other nations should imitate what has been found so advantageous. "The canals of Holland are generally 60 feet wide and 6 deep, and are carefully kept clean; the mud, as manure, is very profitable. The canals are generally levels; of course, locks are not wanted. From Rotterdam to Delft, the Hague, and Leyden, the canal is quite level, but is sometimes affected by strong winds. For the most part, the canals are elevated above the fields or the country, to enable them to carry off the water, which in winter inundates the land. To drain the water from Delftland, a province not more than 60 miles long, they employ 200 windmills in spring-time to raise it into the canals. All the canals of Holland are bordered with dams or banks of immense thickness, and on these depends the security of the country from inundation; of course it is of great moment to keep them in the best repair; to effect which there is a kind of militia, and in every village is a magazine of proper stores and men, whose business it is to convey stones and rubbish in carts to any damaged place. When a certain bell rings, or the waters are at a fixed height, every man repairs to his post. To every house or family there is assigned a certain part of the bank, in the repair of which they are to assist. When a breach is apprehended, they cover the banks all over with cloth and stones." -- (5.) Canal from Amsterdam to Niewdiep, near the Helder. The object of this canal, which is the greatest work of its kind in Holland, and probably in the world, is to afford a safe and easy passage for large vessels from Amsterdam to the German Ocean. This city has 40 feet of water in the road in front of its port, but the pampus or bar at the junction of the Y with the Zuyder Zee, 7 miles below, has only a depth of 10 feet; and hence all ships of any considerable burden entering or leaving the port must unload and load part of their cargoes without the bar. As the Zuyder Zee is everywhere full of shallows, all ordinary means of improving the access to Amsterdam were necessarily ineffectual; and the resolution was, therefore, at length adopted, of cutting a canal from the city to the Helder, the most northern 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 English feet (120 Rhinland feet); the breadth at bottom 36; the depth 20 feet 9 inches. Like the Dutch cana's generally, its level is that of the highest tides, and it receives its supply of water from the sea. The only locks it requires are, of course, two tide-locks at the extremities; but there are, besides, two sluices, with floodgates in the intermediate space. It is crossed by about 18 drawbridges. The locks and sluices are double,— that is, there are two in the breadth of the canal; and their construction and workmanship are said to be excellent. They are built of brick, for economy; but bands of limestone are interposed at intervals, and these project about an inch beyond the brick, to protect it from abrasion by the sides of vessels. There is a broad towing-path on each side, and the canal is wide enough to admit of two frigates passing. (For the expense of towing, see AMSTERDAM.) The line which the canal follows may be easily traced on a map of Holland. From the Y at Amsterdam it proceeds north to Purmerend; thence west to Alkmaar Lake; again north by Alkmaar to a point within 2 miles of the coast, near Petten; whence it runs nearly parallel to the coast till it joins the sea a little to the east of the Helder, at the fine harbour of Niewdiep, formed within the least 30 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 towing vessels from Niewdiep to Amsterdam is 18 hours. The Helder is the only spot on the shores of Holland that has deep water; and it owes this advantage to its being opposite to the Texel, which, by contracting the communication between the German Ocean and the Zuyder Zee to a breadth of about a mile, produces a current which scours and deepens the channel. Immediately opposite the Helder there are 100 feet water at high tides, and at the shallowest part of the bar to the westward there are 27 feet. In the same way, the artificial mound which runs into the Y 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 begun in 1819, and finished in 1825. The cost was estimated at 10,000,000 or 12,000,000 florins, or about 1,000,000l. 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, or the prisme de remplissage, is twice as great as that of the New York Canal, or the Canal of Languedoc, and two and a half times as great as that of the artificial part of the Caledonian canal. In consequence, however, of the facility with which the Dutch canal was dug, and of the evenness of the ground through which it passes, the difficulties with which the engineer had to contend in making it were trifling compared to those which had to be overcome in constructing the canals now mentioned. We have not learned what returns this canal yields; most probably it is not, at least in a direct point of view, a profitable concern. Even in Holland, notwithstanding the |