The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

CANALS—EALLWAYS—EOSTAL SEEYICE. 155verted into an island by the construction of the Gota Canal, forming an uninterruptedline of communication 2G0 miles long between the Baltic and Kattegat.The water-parting is at Lake Wiken, 305 feet above sea-level, whence the canalfalls eastwards to Lake Wener, and so on through other lakes to the Soderkopingfiord,on the Baltic. In this section there are thirfy-nine locks, by which vesselsare successively raised or lowered. West of Lake Wiken the canal falls throughnineteen locks to Lake Wener, whence the Gbta forms its natural continuationto the Kattegat. But this river is interrupted by falls and rapids, of whichthose at Bannum, near Wenersborg, had already beeu turned by a canal early inthe seventeenth century. Those of Trollhattan seemed to present an insurmountableobstacle, till Swedenborg, the strange dreamer and daring engineer,projected its canalisation. This work, interrupted after the death of Charles XII.,was not finished till 1800, ana* since then the engineer Nils Erikson has replacedit by another canal, whose eleven monumental locks, cut in the live rock, remaina model of their kind and a source of universal admiration. Ships drawingabout 10 feet of water can pass from sea to sea through this chain of lakes, rivers,cuttings, and regulated falls constituting the Gota Canal. They may also passFig. 78.—Gota, or Gotland Canal.