WARPING. 57 



The amount of mud thus deposited in a single season was, as 

 I was informed, as much as eighteen inches. Mr. Creyke says, 

 &quot; that in one spring, daring ten or twelve tides, he has known 

 10 or 15 acres to have been warped the thickness of from one to 

 three feet ; and that in June, 1829, a compartment was com 

 menced of 160 acres, which was finished in January, 1830, a 

 period of only seven months. During that period, a general de 

 posit took place of between one and three feet ; but that was an 

 extraordinary season, and the compartment lay in a favorable sit 

 uation for being warped.&quot; 



The value of such land is very great. Bog lands, that were 

 worth only Is. 6d., annual rent, became worth 50s., per acre. 

 The crops obtained on such land are very large, and it is con 

 sidered as too rich for wheat, until it has been severely exhausted 

 by other crops, such as potatoes, flax, rape-seed, and clover. It 

 has been known to yield ninety bushels of beans per acre, and 

 from three hundred to nearly six hundred bushels of potatoes ; 

 and three tons of clover at a first cutting, with a good second crop, 

 and abundant pasturage afterwards. 



This is another specimen of what may justly be called the 

 creation of a soil ; for, where there is a rich deposit of three feet 

 depth of alluvion, it is of little importance whether the sub 

 stratum on which it rests be sand, or bog, or stone. The tur- 

 bidness of these waters, and the quantity of earthy matter held 

 in suspension, are remarkable circumstances. It has been the 

 subject of much curiosity whence it could arise. It has been 

 said that it comes from the abrasion of a long extent of sea-coast 

 by the waves ; but this would hardly account for it, for the water 

 is said to be clear at the junction of the river with the sea. By 

 others it is said to be the washings of the cultivated soils in the 

 interior, brought down by the several rivers and streams which 

 pour into the Humber ; and the fact that the warp is most pro 

 ductive of weeds, and of white clover, establishes the fact of its 

 obligation to these sources. The mouth of the Humber has, 

 without doubt, for years and centuries, been the great receptacle 

 of the washings of the upper countries ; and there they collect, 

 and remain in a state of constant excitement and suspension, at 

 least the upper portions, from the waves, and currents, and tides. 

 This is undoubtedly the source of this vast body of silt, which 

 is floated backwards and forwards by the flux and the reflux of 



