The work, which was begun in 1885, was finished last year, and one of
our readers has been kind enough to send us, along with some
photographs which we herewith reproduce, a description written by Mr.
S. Tanabe, engineer in chief of the work.

The object of the Kioto-Fu Canal is not only to provide a navigable
watercourse, putting the interior of the country in connection with
the sea, but also to furnish waterfalls for supplying the water works
of the city of Kioto with the water necessary for the irrigation of
the rice plantations, and that employed for city distribution. It
starts from the southwest extremity of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in
Japan, and the area of which is 800 square kilometers. This lake,
which is situated at 84 meters above the level of the sea, is 56
kilometers from the Bay of Osaka. As this bay is already in
communication with Kioto by a canal, the Kioto-Fu forms a junction
with the latter after a stretch of 11 kilometers and a difference of
level of 45 meters between its extremities.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--EXTREMITY OF LAKE BIWA AND BEGINNING OF THE
CANAL.]

The lake terminates in a marshy plain (Fig. 1), in which the first
excavation was made. This is protected by longitudinal dikes which
lead back the water to it in case of freshets. At the end of this
cutting, which is 100 meters in length, begins the canal properly so
called, with a width of 5.7 meters, at the surface, and a depth of 1.5
meters, for a length of 540 meters. It then reaches the first tunnel
for crossing the Nagara-yama chain. This tunnel is 2,500 meters in
length, 4.8 in width and 4.2 in height. The water reaches a depth of