b TUE TONER LECTURES. 



the Potomac can bear no comparison ; while the original cost of 

 the work is vastly greater than would be that of a similar recla- 

 mation of the Kidwell Bottems and the Anacostia Flats. In 

 Holland where the reclamations during this whole century have 

 averaged about 4,000 acres a year, the motive for undertaking 

 these works has been almost solely to secure land for agricultural 

 use ; the motive hei'e, where it is necessary to reclaim not more 

 than 2,B00 acres, is one compared with which any economical use 

 is insignificant. 



The projects of Major Twining, Engineer Commissioner of the 

 District, and of the Board of Survey of 1872, indicate the neces- 

 sary means for the enclosure of the Potomac Flats, and suggest 

 a similar treatment along the Anacostia, most of the area enclosed 

 to be filled with eartli, so that the whole of it, except some lakes 

 and ponds, shall become solid, dry ground, not much below the 

 level of the lower parts of the city. 



The Dutch method would be to construct corresponding defences, 

 earth embankments, protected bulk-heads, or otherwise ; to leave 

 the enclosed ground at its present level, and to drain it by artificial 

 power to a sufficient depth to secure the same result as to dryness 

 that would be secured by the filling which has been recommended, 



I have no hesitation in suggesting the adoption of the latter 

 method. The soil of the Kidwell Bottoms needs only to be drained 

 to become, under atmospheric action, in all respects as good for any 

 use to which it may be desirable to put it, as any other dry and 

 solid ground. For all practical purposes, the diflference of level 

 is not of the least consequence, especially as the whole area would 

 probably be devoted to the uses of a public park. The effect would 

 be simply to substitute a dry and pleasant meadow for the present 

 noisome mud flats. 



The project might include a channel along the Potomac water 

 front of the city below the public grounds, as at present ; and a 

 rectification of the main channel of the Potomac and of the chan- 

 nel of the Anacostia. The improvement of the latter stream should 



