CORNWALL Canals are scarce. The longest, now practically disused, is that between Bude and Launceston, finished in 1826 at a cost of j^i 28,000. This was intended chiefly for the shipment of sand, much used agriculturally; a few miles are still available, but the railway has killed it. There was an idea, a few years since, of constructing a canal from Perranporth to the Truro River, a distance of only 8 miles, cut- ting right through Cornwall ; but though the advantage would be considerable, the estimated expense alarmed the projectors. It would form a link for navigation between the two Channels. There is a 9-mile canal between Looe and Moorswater, near Liskeard. Those who like travelling by sea can reach different ports of Cornwall (Penzance, Fal- mouth, St. Ives, Hayle) by the various coasters that leave London, Bristol, Plymouth and other places. Between Plymouth and spots on the S. coast there are frequent boat-excursions during the summer months. IV, Mining It is often supposed that West Country tin was the basis of Britain's earliest commercial prosperity. Without tin there could certainly have been no Bronze Age. But it is still a debatable point whether Cornwall and the Scillies were the Cassiterides of the ancients, and whether St. Michael's Mount, the Isle of Wight, or a part of Kent, was their Iktis. 16
