54 THE SILTING UP OF THE DEE: ITS CAUSE. 
the crucial point—the recent silting up of our river and its cause. 
A writer in the 14th century describes the Port of Chester in 
the following terms :—‘‘ There, where the sea hatli determined 
that creek which shoots in between Flintshire and the west side 
of Wirral Hundred, was founded that beautiful City of Chester 
and made the receptacle of merchandise from all kingdoms and 
nations who traded into the British or Irish Ocean, and became 
the very key or inlet, whereby not only the Romans in their 
time made their passage to and from Ireland and the other 
western and northern island, but all kings and princes ever 
since.” In the 17th century the navigation became very bad, 
and it was stated by a writer ‘that the haven which in times 
past received ships of great burden up to the city skirts, scarce 
now hath sea room for little barques, which only at high water 
do bring in their unladings of great vessels from the quays and 
stations which receive them five, six, or ten miles off. And hence 
it is that within these few years there have been such losses and 
gainings between the shores of Cheshire and Flintshire near 
unto this city that, if I could estimate the same according to my 
own judgments, I should scarcely be believed of such as do not 
behold them with their eyes.”’ In 1730 a company of proprietors 
was formed, and, headed by Nathaniel Kinderley, they obtained 
an Act of Parliament to reclaim the ‘‘ white sands,” as Sealand 
was then termed. They diverted the river from the Cheshire to 
the Flintshire shore by digging a “cut” eight feet deep, and 
throwing up this sand in the form of an embankment, which we 
call the ‘ Navigation Cop.” With the question how far the 
River Dee Company has performed its trust to the citizens of 
Chester—in return for the fertile and valuable lands reclaimed— 
it is not within the scope of this paper to discuss; but the 
manner in which the river was so diverted and constructed by 
their Engineers is—because, I hope to point out to you that they 
could have made it so as to promote its power of scouring out 
its course, instead of, as I affirm, giving the flood tide every 
facility for bringing sediment up the river, and checking in 
every way the return of the ebb. 
THE SILTING UP: How CAUSED. 
To begin, therefore. The width of the river at high water of 
ordinary spring tides is, between Chester and Saltney, 285 feet; 
at the Higher Ferry, 400 feet; at the Lower or King’s Ferry. 
500 feet; and at Connah’s Quay, 850 feet. What is the con- 
sequence of this? The bore or head of the tide: About a mile 
from Connah’s Quay the river narrows to 500 feet, and as soon 
as it narrows the rapidly flowing tide becomes confined—shoots, 
rather than flows, forward at the average rate of from seven to 
eight miles an hour, and sometimes as much as ten miles an 
hour. On December 4th, 1884, I watched the tide coming in at 
