Carlow Trade and Navigation

An inland trade, particularly in grain, is carried on by the Barrow to Waterford, and by the Slaney to Wexford. But though the county is much indebted to both these rivers for the increase of its agricultural prosperity, neither has any claim to be considered as belonging to it exclusively. The former has been rendered navigable from Athy bridge, in the county of Kildare, to the tideway at the rocks called the Scars, below St. Mullins, a distance of about 43 miles: the total fall is 172 feet. The navigation is chiefly in the bed of the river, except near the several mills, where there are artificial cuts and locks: the total extent of the new cuts is five miles; their breadth, 27 feet at the bottom and 42 at the surface of the water. The Derry and Derreen, branches of the Slaney, and the Burren, a branch of the Barrow, are insignificant streams. The roads are numerous, and in general well constructed.