May 19. Castelnaudari.  St. Feriol.  Escamaze.  Lampy.  Some sheep and cattle; no enclosures.  St. Feriol, Escamaze, and Lampy are in the montagnes noires.  The country almost entirely waste.  Some of it in shrubbery.  The voute d’Escamaze is of one hundred and thirty-five yards.  Round about Castelnaudari the country is hilly, as it has been constantly from Beziers; it is very rich.  Where it is plain, or nearly plain, the soil is black:  in general, however, it is hilly and reddish, and in corn.  They cultivate a great deal of Indian corn here, which they call millet; it is planted, but not yet up.

May 20. Castelnaudari.  Naurouze.  Villefranche.  Baziege.  At Naurouze is the highest ground which the canal had to pass between the two seas.  It became necessary, then, to find water still higher to bring it here.  The river Fresquel heading by its two principal branches in the montagnes noires, a considerable distance off to the eastward, the springs of the most western one were brought together, and conducted to Naurouze, where its waters are divided, part furnishing the canal towards the ocean, the rest towards the Mediterranean, as far as the ecluse de Fresquel, where, as has been before noted, the Lampy branch and the Alzau, under the name of the Fresquel, enter.

May 20.  They have found that a lock of six pieds is best; however, eight pieds is well enough.  Beyond this, it is bad.  Monsieur Pin tells me of a lock of thirty pieds made in Sweden, of which it is impossible to open the gates.  They therefore divided it into four locks.  The small gates of the locks of this canal have six square pieds of surface.  They tried the machinery of the jack for opening them.  They were more easily opened, but very subject to be deranged, however strongly made.  They returned, therefore, to the original wooden screw, which is excessively slow and laborious.  I calculate that five minutes are lost at every basin by this screw, which, on the whole number of basins, is one eighth of the time necessary to navigate the canal:  and of course, if a method of lifting the gate at one stroke could be found, it would reduce the passage from eight to seven days, and the freight equally.  I suggested to Monsieur Pin and others a quadrantal gate, turning on a pivot, and lifted by a lever like a pump-handle, aided by a windlass and cord, if necessary.  He will try it, and inform me of the success.  The price of transportation from Cette to Bordeaux, through the canal and Garonne is ------ the quintal:  round by the straits of Gibraltar is ------.  Two hundred and forty barks, the largest of twenty-two hundred quintals (or say, in general, of one hundred tons), suffice to perform the business of this canal, which is stationary, having neither increased nor diminished for many years.  When pressed, they can pass and repass between Toulouse and Beziers in fourteen days; but sixteen is the common period.  The canal is navigated ten and a half months of the year:  the other month and a half being necessary to lay it dry, cleanse it, and repair the works.  This is done in July and August, when there would perhaps be a want of water.