KILDARE RIVERS

Several attempts were made near the close of the last century to establish the cotton manufacture, and some large mills were built near Clane, Leixlip, and other places, but they all fell to decay. A very large mill for manufacturing cotton was, however, built a few years since at Inchyguire, near Ballytore, which is still in full operation; and a small woollen manufacture is carried on at Celbridge. These are the only manufactures of note which the county possesses, although the numerous falls on the rivers offer most advantageous sites for the erection of works, and there is great facility for the transit of goods. Though all the small rivers abound with trout, and though the Barrow formerly gave a copious supply of salmon, yet there are no fisheries. The weirs thrown across this river for forming mill-dams have presented such impediments to the passage of the fish, that they are nearly banished from it.

The river Boyne has its source in the northern part of the county, as also has its tributary branch the Black-water. The Barrow forms the greater part of the western boundary, being joined in its course by the Feagile, the Little Barrow, the Finnery, the Grees, and the Ler (or Lune), all from the east; the Liffey trenches deeply into the eastern part, receiving at Leixlip the Rye-water, which forms part of the northern boundary, and its tributary the Lyreen; it also receives the Morrel between Celbridge and Clane. The Grand Canal enters this county near Lyons, nine miles from Dublin, and quits it for the King's county near the source of the Boyne, in the Bog of Allen. Near Sallins it is carried over the Liffey by an elegant aqueduct, whence a branch leads to the town of Naas, and thence is another branch to Harbourstown, in the direction of Kilcullen, which was intended to have been continued to Wexford.

From Robertstown, just where the canal enters the Bog of Allen, a branch diverges, and passing through the Queen's county falls into the Barrow at Athy, opening a communication with Carlow, New Ross, and Waterford. From this line a branch, called the Miltown Canal, leaves it near Robertstown, and proceeds in the direction of the Curragh; and at Monastereven, where the Athy line crosses the Barrow by a noble aqueduct, another branch leaves it for Portarlington and Mountmellick. The summit level is in this county, from which each branch is amply supplied with water in the driest seasons without the expense of a reservoir. The Royal Canal enters near Leixlip, seven miles from Dublin, and passes a little south of Maynooth and Kilcock to Nicholastown, near which it leaves this county and enters Meath: it re-enters it by an aqueduct over the Blackwater, and continues to the Boyne, over which it is conveyed by an aqueduct, and again enters Meath near Clonard.

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