110 MEMOIR ON BOSTON HARBOR. 



But while the London docks do not furnish us an example for imitation, we may 

 copy with advantage the plan of the Atlantic Dock. The water area of the London 

 docks is about one hundred and eighty-eight acres. Now the whole amount of the wa- 

 ter area of the Fore Point Channel, including the space between the wharves, added to 

 that of the two Mystic Channels, is about the same as the water area of the London 

 docks. So far, then, from being called upon to excavate wet docks on the South Boston 

 Flats at an incalculable cost, we have merely to inclose these channels suitably, and 

 maintain them in a good state, to have at ence a protected water area equal to that of the 

 Loudon docks, but having this remarkable superiority ; that by far the greater portion of 

 it is provided with natural reservoirs of back-water, which, if properly treated, will serve 

 always to keep it open. And to all this is still to be added Chelsea Great Creek, the 

 water area of which is in itself equal in amount to that of the London docks, and which, 

 though it has no rear receptacle, possesses in its natural state every advantage of secu- 

 rity that art could bestow. 



It is painful to see opinions so erroneous, upon a subject of such vast importance as 

 the preservation of Boston Harbor, and the improvement of its commercial accommoda- 

 tions, officially and formally laid before the Legislature of the State. 



If the Fore Point Channel were appropriately walled in, (there being already suffi- 

 cient wharf-room,) and if the proper accessories were provided, there is no reason why 

 it should not, considering its convenience and proximity, take the place in Boston Har- 

 bor of the Atlantic Dock in New York. At present it exhibits a melancholy spectacle 

 of resources wasted and opportunities unimproved. 



Regret is sometimes expressed that so large a quantity of the tidal marshes and mud- 

 lands should have been filled during the present century. But this operation was the 

 necessary concomitant of the growth of the city, and indeed the very mode of its pros- 

 perity and increase. The statesmen and political economists of the day would not have 

 hesitated to sanction and encourage the schemes of aggrandizement of enterprising and 

 sagacious projectors, even if they had foreseen that one of their results would be the 

 loss of water capacity in the main channels of the harbor. Their part was to lay the 

 foundations of our commercial greatness ; one of the duties devolved upon us is to pre- 

 serve and improve the instruments of commerce ; and with prudent measures we shall 

 always have it in our power to secure to Boston Harbor its present reputation of being 

 one of the safest and most commodious in the world. 



