44 REPORT — 1853. 



place, the 10,000 acres' gain within the Humber will very fairly account for 

 the loss of 6000 acres on the sea coast. If, therefore, the great accretions of 

 Sunk Island and its immediate neighbourhood are not formed by the loss ot 

 the land on the shores of the Humber, what becomes of the loss from the 

 foreshores of the Humber thus washed away? My answer is, that a large 

 amount of it may pass up the rivers Trent, Ouse, Don, &c., and find its way 

 on to the extensive tracts of land so wonderfully improved of late years by 

 what is termed " warping," i. c. by the process of admitting the tidal water 

 by means of sluices on to the surface of the land, carrying with it a heavy 

 charge of mud, which on the turn of tide is left on tiie land. By this process 

 the most worthless land has been rendered the most fertile and valuable. 

 When therefore we take into account that tens of thousands of acres have 

 been thus improved by an average depth of 2 or 3 feet of this rich 

 matter, the question of where does the lost land of the Humber go to is in 

 some measure answered. I may mention that I have known land put under 

 the process of warping, on which, in about two and a half years, an average 

 depth of deposit of 3 feet has taken place ; and within a year or two alter 

 tiie tides have been shut out, the land is brought into tillage, and crops of 

 corn growing. By this process, thousands of acres of extensive swamps in 

 the Vale of the Humber might, at a comparatively small cost, become valu- 

 able and profitable. i r ^.u u 



I have only now briefly to notice the currents and channels ot the Huin- 

 ber ; and as I have already stated that the principal changes taking place m 

 the mud and sand-banks are above Hull, so also, and as a matter of course, 

 is it with the currents and channels, and so rapid and frequent are they, that 

 it can scarcely be told twenty-four hours beforehand where the channel may 

 be. Below Hull the currents and channels are more fixed and steady, and 

 it is only occasionally that any material change occurs. It may not prove 

 uninteresting for a moment to trace the direction of the current, as it more 

 generallv proceeds downward. . 



The streams of the Trent and Ouse unite above Faxfleet Mess, having 

 come in contact at about right angles with each other, and there being little 

 difference in the volume and force of each, their united force would naturally 

 produce an angle of about 45 degrees ; and so we find it to be the case. 1 he 

 greater bulk of the stream passes along in front of Whitton, and finding a 

 hard surlace, can make very little impression on the beach,— continues in 

 the direction of Brough, and again meeting with the same hard formation 

 (lias), is pitched ofi" in the direction of Ferriby, and again is repelled by 

 the chalk of that district in the direction of Hessle, where meeting with 

 another hard face it is again diverted, and proceeds in the direction of a little 

 below Barton. Leaving on its north what is termed the Hessle middle, and 

 passing New Holland, it takes the direction of Hull and the deep bend of 

 Marfleet and Hedon, until it feels the hard gravel formation of High Faull, 

 when it is directed again to the Lincolnshire shore close in by Kelhngholme 

 and Stallingborough, and thence to the north side of the Burcom, south ot 

 the Middle Sand, and north of the Bull to the sea. This is not an engineer- 

 ing subject for discussion, or a great deal might be said on the improvement 

 of the navigation of the Humber by embankments and other works. Much 

 has been said on the question of depositing mud in the Humber, dredged 

 from the docks. As a general principle, I think it is right that nothing 

 should be deposited in navigable rivers, or indeed rivers ol any kind ; but 

 with reference to the mud taken out of our docks, I am of opinion that no 

 part of it ren.ains in the channel where discharged from the barges, for had 

 this been the case and the deposit remained, we should have had an island 



