The carrying department is very conveniently situated close to the Regent's
Canal, so as to have easy communication with inland as well as sea
navigation. A series of sheds occupy an area of 135,000 superficial feet,
and the platforms to receive goods from railway trucks on one side and from
waggons on the other, occupy 30,000 feet. These platforms and sheds are
provided with 110 cranes, for loading and unloading, with a power varying
from one ton and a half to twenty tons. By these appliances, work of the
most miscellaneous character goes on all day, and part of the night.

The railway trucks and waggons are moved about by horses: it is amusing to
see the activity with which the heavy brutes often bring a waggon up at a
trot, jump out of the way just at the right moment, and allow the waggon to
roll up to the right spot by its own momentum.

The horses are lodged in stables in the underground vaults, which we cannot
commend, as they are dark, damp, full of draughts, and yet ill ventilated;
but it was necessary to use these vaults, and difficult to find stabling for
such a number of horses close at hand.

The carrying department at Camden is very miscellaneous, and moves
everything, from the contents of a nursery ground to a full grown locomotive,
but they do not impress a stranger so much as the arrangements at Manchester
and Liverpool. The annual consumption of gas at Camden exceeds six million
cubic feet.

Under the railway system the certainty and rapidity with which merchandise
can be transmitted, changes and simplifies more and more every year the
operations of trade. For instance, Southampton is the great port for that
part of our Indian, South American, and Mediterranean trade which is
conducted by steamers. When a junction has been effected between the London