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and 40 in breadth: the piles are of oak, and the head of
each is tenoned into a cap piece 40 feet long and 17
inches square, supported by three sets of girths and
braces; the piers, which are 16 1/2 feet apart, are bound
together by thirteen string-pieces equally divided and
transversely bolted, on which is laid the flooring: on
each side of the platform is a railing 4 1/2 feet high, also
a broad pathway provided with gas lamps. Near the
end next to the city a turning bridge has been construct-
ed in place of the original drawbridge, to allow of the
free navigation of the river. On the 6th of Feb., 1814,
a portion of the bridge extending to 350 feet was carried
away by large masses of ice floated down the river by
the ebb tide and a very high wind. The original ex-
pense of its erection was £16,594, and of the repairs
after the damage in 1814, £18,2O8, of which latter sum,
£15,000 was advanced as a loan by Government: the
average annual amount of tolls from 1831 to 1834, in-
clusive, was £3693. Plans and estimates for the erec-
tion of a new bridge, nearly 200 yards above the present,
have been procured; but there is no prospect of the
immediate execution of the design. A public library
and news room, commenced in I819 by subscription
and established on its present plan in 1824, by a body
of proprietors of transferable shares of 20 guineas each, is
provided with about. 2660 volumes of modern works and
with periodical publications and daily and weekly news-
papers: it is a plain building faced with hewn Dungiven
sandstone, erected by subscription in 1824, at an ex-
pense of nearly £2000, and, besides the usual apartments,
contains also the committee-room of the Chamber of
Commerce. The lower part of the building is used as
the news- room, to which all the inhabitants are admitted
on payment of five guineas annually. A literary society
for debates and lectures was instituted in 1834, and the
number of its members is rapidly increasing. Concerts
were formerly held at the King’s Arms hotel, but have
been discontinued. Races are held on a course to the
north of the town. Walker’s Testimonial, on the cen-
tral western bastion, was completed in 1828 by sub-
scription, at an expense of £1200: it consists of a
column of Portland stone of good proportions, in the
Roman Doric style, surmounted by a statue of that
distinguished governor by John Smith, Esq., of Dublin:
the column is ascended by a spiral staircase within, and,
including the pedestal, is 81 feet in height, in addition
to which the statue measures nine feet. The city is in
the northern military district, and is the head-quarters
of a regiment of infantry which supplies detachments to
various places: the barracks are intended for the ac-
commodation of four officers and 320 men, with an hos-
pital for 32 patients, but from their insufficiency a more,
commodious edifice is about to be erected, for which
ground has been provided in the parish of Clondermot.
The manufactures are not very considerable: the
principal is that of meal, for which there are several
corn-mills, of which one erected by Mr. Schoales in 1831,
and worked by a steam-engine of 18-horse power,
and another subsequently by Mr. Leatham, worked by
an engine of 20-horse power, are the chief: the recent
extension of this branch of trade has made meal an
article of export instead of import, as formerly; in 1831,
553 tons were imported, and in 1834 6950 tons were
exported. In William-street are a brewery and dis-
tillery; there are copper-works which supply the whole
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of the north-west of Ulster, and afford regular employ-
ment to 27 men; two coach-factories; and a corn-
mill and distillery at Pennyburn, and another at Water-
side. A sugar-house was built in 1762, in what is still
called Sugar-house-lane, but was abandoned in 1809;
the buildings were converted into a glass manufactory
in 1820, but this branch of business was carried on for
a few years only. This is the place of export for the
agricultural produce of a large tract of fertile country,
which renders the coasting trade very extensive, espe-
cially with Great Britain: the quantity of grain exported
to England and Scotland alone, in the year ending Jan.
5th 1835, was 3680 tons of wheat, 1490 tons of barley,
10,429 tons of oats, 6950 tons of oatmeal, 3050 tons of
eggs, 3654 tons of flax, 52,842 firkins of butter, 11,580
barrels of pork, 1900 bales of bacon, 590 hogsheads of
hams, 1628 kegs of tongues, and 147 hogsheads of
lard. It is still the market for a considerable quantity
of linen, of which 9642 boxes and bales were exported
in the same year. The number of vessels employed in
the coasting trade which entered inwards in 1834 was
649, of an aggregate tonnage of 63,726, and which cleared
outwards, 646, of an aggregate tonnage of 62,502, in-
cluding steam-vessels, which ply regularly between this
port and Liverpool and Glasgow. The principal articles
of foreign produce imported direct are staves and timber
from the Baltic, barilla from Spain, sugar and rum from
the West Indies, wine from Spain and Portugal; tobacco
from the United States, from which the ships come
chiefly to take out emigrants, who resort to this port
from the inland districts in great numbers; flax seed,
the importation of which has much increased within the
last few years, from Riga, America, and Holland; the
quantity imported in 1835 was 12,400 hogsheads; but
the greater proportion of foreign commodities comes
indirectly, or coastwise. The number of vessels em-
ployed in the foreign trade which entered inwards in
1834 was 57, of an aggregate burden of 10,406 tons, and
that cleared outwards, 16, of an aggregate tonnage of
4869. The salmon fishery of the Foyle affords employ-
ment to 120 men, exclusively of the same number of
water-keepers: the fish is shipped principally for Liver-
pool; some is also sent to Glasgow, and some pickled
for the London market: the quantity taken annually on
an average of three years from 1832 to 1834 inclusive
was about 149 tons. The right of fishing in this river
up to Lifford is vested by charter of Jas. I. in the Irish
Society, who by an act in the reign of Anne, are bound
to pay the bishop £250 per annum, as compensation for
his claim to some small fishings, and also to a tithe of
the whole; but at present the Marquess of Abercorn and
the Earl of Erne hold fisheries below the town of Lifford.
The fishery off the coast is precarious, and frequently
yields only a scanty supply, from the danger in encoun-
tering a rough sea experienced by the boats employed in
it, which are only indifferently built; yet at other times
the market abounds with turbot taken near Innistrahull
and on Hempton’s Bank, about 18 Irish miles north of
Ennishowen Head; soles and haddock, taken in Lough
Swilly and elsewhere; cod, mostly off the entrance to
Lough Foyle; and oysters, taken in Lough Swilly from
the island of Inch up to Fort Stewart, and in Lough
Foyle, from Quigley’s Point down to Greencastle. Derry
is situated about 19 statute miles above the entrance to
Lough Foyle, the approach to which is facilitated by a