32 REPORT — 1856. 



Liverpool Dock Extension. — These dock- works comprehended the Nelson, 

 Bramley-Moore, and Wellington Docks; the Wellington Half-tide Dock, the 

 Sandon Dock, the Sandon Graving Dock, and the Sandon Basin ; altogether 

 a tidal area of about 117 acres. 



Meteorological Phcenomena. — From observations recorded in the War- 

 rington Museum and Library, for the use of which the Committee is indebted 

 to Mr. Glazebrook Rylands of that town, it appears that the fall of rain in 

 ISi^ (the earliest year perfectly recorded) was 23'73 inches; in ISiS, 30"12 

 inches ; and in 1816, the year of the survey, 30-29 inches. 



In ' Gore's Annals ' the following facts are noted : — 



1841. — Terrific thunder-storm. The spires of the churches of St. Michael's 

 and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields struck. August 24-. 



284-3. — A great storm during the night of January. 13. Houses and 

 buildings were unroofed. The damage done to the shipping in the river 

 and outside the harbour was very great, and many lives were lost. 



ISi^. — The dock receipts for the last week were much greater than were 

 ever received in any one week, and considerably more than double the 

 receipts of the corresponding week of last year. The long prevalence of 

 easterly winds in some measure contributed to produce so large an item. 

 June 13. 



Northern Channel. \M9 The survey of 1849 does not exhibit any 



marked changes beyond the consolidation of some of the outlying banks 

 near the junction of the Victoria and Zebra Channels; as, for example, that 

 of the Taylor's Bank and Jordan Flats. It appears to have been prepared 

 to show an alteration in the fairway track through the Victoria Channel, in 

 consequence of a shift westward of Little Burbo Bank. The positions of the 

 Bell Buoy and of the Formby and Crosby Light-vessels remained unaltered. 



The average depth of water on the Victoria Bar had been slightly re- 

 duced. 



Dock Extension. — The Huskisson Dock, the most northernly of the 

 Liverpool Docks, and the Birkenhead Docks, had made considerable progress 

 since the survey of 1 846. 



Meteorological Phcenomena.~T\\e Warrington tables record the rain-fall 

 during the interval between the two surveys, as follows: — In 1846, 30*29 

 inches; in 1847, 36*71 inches; in 1848, 33*75 inches; and in 1849, 33*98 

 inches. 



In Swineshaw Brook, a feeder of the Tame, which is a branch of the 

 Mersey, the rain-fall recorded by Messrs. Peter Clark, F.R.A.S., and J. F. 

 Bateman, F.G.S., Mem. Inst. C.E. (Memoirs of the Literary and Philoso- 

 phical Society of Manchester, page 17, vol. ix. second series), was as 

 follows: — 1845, 59'8 inches, "possibly registered too high; in other places 

 the fall just an average;" 1846, 42*6 inches, "and this year was consider- 

 ably below the average;" 1847, 49*35 inches, "this year was about the 

 average, in some places above." 



Survey, 1852. — The chart of 1852 shows that considerable and important 

 changes had taken place since the survey of 1846, with which that of 1849 

 may be considered in the main identical. The re-survey of the bay at the 

 latter period, as before observed, seems to have been confined to the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the Victoria Channel. 



The following comparison, therefore, is instituted between the surveys of 

 1846 and 1852, a period of six years. 



Northern Channel — Crosby Channel. — The principal changes which had 

 taken place in that portion of the Crosby Channel between the Rock Light- 

 house and the Crosby Light-vessel, were its elongation, and the consequent 



