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LXXXIV. On Embanking 166 Acres of Marsh Land from the 
Sea. By Epwarp Dawson, Esq. of Aldcliffe Hall, near 
Lancaster *. 
Aldcliffe Hall, near Lancaster, Nov. 10, 1820. 
Sir, — I BEG leave to present a claim to the Society for the En- 
couragement of Arts, &c., for the premium offered in No, 34 
of their List of rewards published this year. I transmit the cer- 
tificates required by the Society, and hope they will be deemed 
satisfactory. 
The inclosure, the consideration of which I have the honour 
to submit to the Committee, consists of 166 acres, three roods, 
eight perches of Jand, known by the name of Aldcliffe Marsh, 
about two miles distant from the mouth of the river Lune, and 
one mile from Lancaster. It was, with the exception of about 
three acres, swarded over, and has heretofore been attached as 
a sheep pasture to the different farms on the manor of Aldcliffe; 
it was estimated ut a low rent, as it was in a great measure over- 
flowed by the spring tides, and being intersected by a deep pool, 
the sheep were frequently surrounded by the water, and conse- 
quently lost. 
My first operation was, to convey the land waters from this 
pool into the Lune, which was done by opening for them a new 
channel through part of the old inclosures, from nine to twelve 
feet deep, and 246 yards in length. This cut was walled and 
covered with stone, and terminates with a hewn culvert of the 
same material, four yards in length, and two feet square. 
On the 8th of May last, the embankment wat commenced. 
It runs parallel with the Lune, which is in that part about a mile 
and a half in breadth at high water. The highest tides are with 
a south-west wind, which causes them to set in with considera- 
ble violence. The length of the embankment is 2010 yards ; 
for the first 200 yards at the north (or higher) end, I satisfied 
myself with a slope of five horizontal to one perpendicular; in 
the next 1,400 yards, the slope is 6 to 1, and where the pool 
formerly discharged itself, it is for 300 yards 7 to ]; the re- 
mainder being on high ground, is 5 to 1; its height averages 
about § feet 6 inches; the greatest perpendicular height being 
14 feet 6 inches; the whole of the inside slope is 2 to J. It is 
entirely composed of sand, with the exception of the deep part, 
which is formed of clay, the sand being there worn away by the 
violent reflux of the tide. Its contents are as follows :—69,456 
cubic yards of sand, covered by 53,078 superficial yards of sods 
* From the Transactions of the Society for the Encouregement of Arts, 
Manufuctures, and Commerce, for the year 182]. The Society's large Cold 
Medal was voted to Mr. Dawson for this communication. 
or 
