Reclamation of Land from the Sea. 659 



lecture hacl convinced liim that it was better to keep manure covered 

 than exposed, he concluded by observing that in his experience hay 

 and straw were of little valiie as manure. 



Professor Voelcker, in reply to a question by the preceding speaker, 

 said that the value of straw as manure might be taken at about 8s. per 

 ton, but hay, which was richer in nitrogen than straw, would be about 

 15s. : it was therefore of little value as manure. 



Meeting of Weelcly Council, Tuesday evening, April 30th. Mr. 

 Thompson (the President) in the Chair. The Secretary read a paper, 

 contributed by Mr. S. Shellabear (agent to the Earl of Leicester), on 



Reclamation of Land eeom the Sea. 



The inclosure of certain land at Holkham was commenced by the 

 Earl of Leicester, in the summer of 185G, by the erection of about 150 

 yards of embankment at its western end, excluding the sea, which flowed 

 over it in that direction from Holkham Bay. At this time the land was 

 protected from the sea, on the north side, by a long range of sand hills 

 of considerable width and height, covered with marram, the growth 

 probably of a long series of years; and there is, perhaps, no more 

 secure protection against the sea than these hills, if ordinary care and 

 attention be paid by repairing with rows of faggots the occasional 

 damages made from time to time by currents of wind, and in plant- 

 ing the newly-drifted sand with marram. On the south were grass- 

 marshes, enclosed many years since, and the whole of the eastern end 

 was open to the shifting channel of Wells Harbour, which formed its 

 boundary in that qiiarter to a length of a mile and 200 yards. The 

 embankment here was the heaviest portion of the work connected with 

 the inclosure : it was commenced in the spring of 1857, and completed 

 in the autumn of 1858. It starts from a point at the western end of 

 Wells Quay, and runs in a straight line alongside the Channel, nearly 

 due north to a high shingle beach, forming the eastern end of the sand 

 hills, and crossing the old channel twice in its length, a new one 

 having been previously cut to the eastward. The south end of this 

 bank being upon the high level clay deposit, is formed entirely of that 

 material for a distance of about 400 yards, but the remainder of it is 

 built upon the sand, and is formed entirely of sand inside, protected on 

 the sea side by 2 feet thickness of puddle (dipping at the foot 5 feet 

 into the sand), and on the land side by one foot of puddle. The width 

 at the top is 5 feet. On the sea side its slope is 4 to 1 for a distance of 

 8 feet from the top, and 5 to 1 for the remaining distance ; upon the 

 land side the portion made in 1857 had a slope of 2 to 1 to a distance 

 of 8 feet from the top, and then 3 to 1 to the level of the ground ; the 

 portion made in 1858 was formed throughout to a slope of 2 to 1. 

 The upper portion of the slope upon the sea side, and the whole slope 

 upon the inside, were covered with grass flag, cut 3 inches thick. The 

 top of the embankment and the 5 to 1 slope on the outside were covered 

 with shingle. Experience has shown that sand is the better material 



