THE RIVER MERSEY. 19 



salt marshes were, about the year 1822, only 1897 acres, from which further 

 abstractions have since been made." 



That in further corroboration of your Memorialists' representation, they 

 lay before your Lordships the following Report of Lieutenant Lord, R.N., 

 the Marine Surveyor of the Dock Trustees : — 



" Marine Surveyor's Office, February 1839. 



" My attention having been called to the fluctuations going on from time 

 to time on the banks and shores of the Mersey and its embouchure, I beg to 

 state that all those conversant with the navigable channels of the river are 

 aware that frequent and sometimes very sudden changes take place in the 

 sand-banks and navigable waters of the same. That such fluctuations are 

 going on continually is strongly evidenced by the Marine Surveyor's Report 

 in 1836, by which it appears that between the years 1828 and 1886 the 

 horizontal increase of Pluckington Bank was 210 yards abreast of Brunswick 

 Basin, 123 abreast of King's Dock, and 40 abreast of Duke's Dock ; and that 

 between the years 1834 and 1836 it had grown up one foot at Brunswick 

 Dock, two feet off Brunswick Basin, three feet ofl" King's Dock, three feet 

 off Duke's Dock, and one foot off Canning Dock; whilst its lower water 

 margin yielded 50 yards during the same period. Thus threatening to be- 

 come a serious obstruction to the entrance of Brunswick, King's, and Duke's 

 Dock. 



" It also appears from the same statements, that the Devil's Bank and Spit 

 had considerably elongated during the above period. 



" In a remoter region, namely, the sand-banks at the entrance of the port, 

 such as the Great and Little Burbo, Jordan Flats, &c., the changes have been 

 still greater, as was fully evinced in the survey carried on last summer, as 

 compared with that of 1835. 



" In no part is this more strongly exemplified than in the Half-tide Swash- 

 way and the New Channel. 



" In the former the Old Channel has filled, leaving a dry bank at low water, 

 and another channel has scoured itself where we had formerly a dry bank; 

 whilst in the New Channel there has been a gradual warping and filling 

 up for the last four years, leaving now a navigable channel of only 130 

 fathoms wide, with 1 1 feet at low water, where we formerly had a channel 

 half a mile wide with 12 and 13 feet. 



" Taylor's Bank has also considerably spread to the north-west during the 

 above interval, and various other alterations have taken place in the contour 

 and altitude of the banks. 



" In conclusion, I would state it to be my conviction that the encroachment 

 on the bed of the river, by the reclaiming of land, &c. at its upper part, cannot 

 be too strongly deprecated, as it must evidently diminish tiie backwater, on 

 the scouring effects of which the very vitality of the entrances to the port 

 depends, besides altering and diverting the stream of the river into new and 

 often injurious channels. 



" I have the honour, &c., " W. Lord." 



That your Memorialists, in the language of their late lamented representa- 

 tive the Right Honourable William Huskisson, " feel convinced, from facts 

 and personal observation, that if the system of encroachment and nuisance 

 which has prevailed for many years in the Mersey is not effectually checked, 

 so as to give full scope for the natural flux and reflux of the tidal waters, 

 the Port of Liverpool will, in the course of no very long time, be as much 

 choked up as those of Chester and Lancaster now are." 



Your Memorialists therefore, iu conclusion, earnestly urge on the attention 



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