THE RIVER MERSEY. 25 



water is liable to daily diminution by various encroachments, and, if not 

 protected, will be materially lessened, the effect of which would undoubtedly 

 be, the sanding and filling up of the sea channels, leading ultimately to the 

 ruin of the port. 



The first object therefore worthy the attention of the conservators, would, 

 in my opinion, be the preservation of the backwater as it at present exists, 

 and to take care that for the future it was not trenched on or diminished. 



To effect this object, it would, I think, be desirable that the limits of the 

 high-water margin of the river should be accurately marked and defined, 

 and that no subsequent encroachment should be allowed on the bed of the 

 river, either in the shape of reclaiming land from its banks, or by allow- 

 ing any projections into the stream of the river without the sanction of the 

 Commissioners. 



It is a well-known fact, that considerable encroachments have in former 

 times been made on the bed of the Mersey by the reclaiming of land in the 

 upper part of the river, and such operations cannot, in my opinion, be too 

 strongly deprecated ; and I may here add, that it is to this very cause, viz. 

 the enclosure of land in its upper part, that the filling up of the channels in 

 the estuary of the Dee is very generally attributed. 



Having defined the high-water limits, it would, I think, be very desirable 

 that the edges of the banks (which in the upper part of the river are com- 

 posed of an earthy sward) should be protected by a facing of stone or other 

 suitable material ; the destructive fretting away and undermining of their 

 margins and consequent dissemination thereof on the banks in the river, and 

 its embouchure, would thus be obviated. 



Having thus secured and rendered permanent a scouring force of water 

 equal to that we now possess, and which there is every reason to believe is 

 capable of maintaining the sea-approaches of the port in as effective a state 

 as they now exist, it would only remain to carefully and vigilantly watch the 

 changes that might arise from time to time in the sand-banks in the river and 

 its approaches, and should circumstances render it necessary, adopt such 

 timely remedial measures as the urgency of the case or the operations of 

 nature might suggest. I may here remark, that the dredging operations 

 which were so successfully carried on during a period of ten months last 

 year in the Victoria Channel, and by means of which a most valuable chan- 

 nel was opened to the port, depended for their success entirely on the column 

 of water running out of the Mersey on the ebb tide, and a minute attention 

 to the changes which were naturally taking place in that region; and should 

 any future fluctuations take place in that or other quarters, it may again 

 become requisite to adopt artificial measures to improve or preserve the 

 approaches to the port. 



The natural formation of the River Mersey is, I think, admirably adapted 

 for the purpose of scouring and keeping open the sea channels, provided 

 that formation is not altered and distorted by encroachments on its banks. 

 The upper part of the river, between the Dingle Point and Weston Point, 

 forms as it were an immense inland lake of eleven miles long by two and a 

 half broad, the latter being the average width between Eastham and Garston, 

 and Dungeon Point and the Cheshire shore. At the Dingle Point the river 

 contracts, and between the Cheshire shore and Liverpool, from the south to 

 the north end of the docks, it constitutes a narrow gorge of only half a mile 

 width and considerable depth, through Avhich the calculated waters of the 

 upper lake are disgorged with a velocity of as much as seven miles per hour 

 on the ebb tide ; and though it is true that this impetus is materially dimi- 

 nished by the time it reaches the sea at the outer bars of the shallows, still 



