 Traffic stopped on several occasions, due to a lack of water in the reservoirs.Excessive wastage from Mapperley reservoir was blamed on Charles Pounder, the canal keeper, and he was asked to leave in 1885, but his successor was worse.A final dividend was paid on the shares in 1885, and by 1888, the canal was barely solvent, for although 35,000 tons of coal and iron were carried, generating £440 of income, maintenance costs alone were £639.