REPORT ON HYDRAULICS. PART II. 4711 



The next and most important improvement in the Bedford 

 Level was the Nene Cut or Outfall. The river Nene, after 

 passing through Northamptonshire, enters the Level at Peter- 

 borough, whence it proceeds in an irregular direction through 

 Guyhern and Wisbeach to the sea near Gunthorpe Sluice, and 

 thence loses itself amongst the irregular channels and sands of 

 the Washway. 



The defective state of this river and of the drainage have been 

 at all times complained of ; and the attempts which had been 

 made to remedy it, by Bishop Morton in 1478, by Sir Clement 

 Edmonds in 1618, by Kinderley in 1721, and by Smeaton in 

 1767, had in a great measure failed, not so much from a de- 

 ficiency of skill on the part of the engineers as from other causes. 

 The very successful drainage of the East Fens in Lincolnshire 

 by Mr. Rennie induced the Commissioners of the North Level 

 to apply to him in the year 1813, and the result was a very 

 elaborate Report from that gentleman in the following year, 

 detailing very fully the causes and effects of the evils, and the 

 measures necessary to remedy them. The following facts are 

 curious : 



From accurate levels and sections of the river Nene, it ap- 

 peared that the fall at low water from Sutton Wash to Crab 

 Hole (below the sands of the Wash) was 12 feet in about 

 4 miles ; from the surface of the water at Gunthorpe Sluice to 

 Crab Hole, a distance of 5^ miles, the fall was 13 feet ; and from 

 Wisbeach Bridge to the same point, a distance of 11^ miles, 

 the fall was 13^ feet. 



From Guyhern to Crab Hole, a distance of 17 mUes, the fall 

 was 14 feet 6 inches ; and from Peterborough Bridge to the 

 same point, a distance of 30^ miles, the fall was only 18 feet 

 6 inches ; whereas from Peterborough Bridge to Sutton Wash, 

 a distance of more than 26 miles, the fall was only 6| feet, 

 or 3^ inches per mile ; but at the intermediate distances, be- 

 tween Sutton Wash and South Holland and Gunthorpe Sluices, 

 the fall was nearly double the above average. 



From these facts it appeared evident that the great bar to the 

 discharge of the waters of the Nene, and of course to the general 

 drainage of the fens, was the high and shifting sands which lay 

 between Gunthorpe Sluice and Crab Hole, independently of the 

 narrow and confined state of the river above ; Mr. Rennie there- 

 fore recommended the river to be carried by a new cut, of a 

 suitable capacity, across the marshes to Crab Hole, b\ miles in 

 length. 



The Cut has been since carried into execution under the 



