STRAIGHTENING A RIVER. 61 



land; and it was done by a benevolent individual, the late Mrs. 

 Davies Gilbert, who was full of works of active good, by way of 

 showing that even the most barren spots might, by labor, be 

 made productive ; that this might be done, in many situations 

 the most unpromising, with a full return for the labor and ex 

 penditure ; and that, in many cases, all that is necessary, to enable 

 the poor to provide for their own necessities, is to give them the 

 opportunity of exerting their own powers. 



XCVI. STRAIGHTENING A RIVER. 



On the eastern shores of England, near where the boundaries 

 of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, arid Norfolk, come together, and 

 running for some distance to the north, is a place called the 

 Wash, being a shallow and muddy deposit, which is left bare, to 

 a great extent, at low water. Considerable portions of this have 

 already been reclaimed. Where the River Nene, at the southern 

 part of this Wash, entered into it, its channel was narrow, arid 

 crooked, and inconvenient for navigation. By laying bunches 

 of fagots, at low water, in two lines at a proper distance from 

 each other, so as to form two walls, leaving a proper width for 

 the river, and turning the channel of the river between them, 

 the course of the river itself deepens the channel, the mud col 

 lecting among these fagots fixes them down, and forms two 

 solid banks ; and the silt, or deposit, collecting on the outside of 

 these walls, soon rises above high-water mark, and presently^ 

 being protected against the irruptions of the sea by cross em 

 bankments, will be converted into productive fields. The chan 

 nel of the river is, of course, now made perfectly straight. As 

 the silt, and slime, and mud collect among these walls of fagots, 

 they are gradually raised to a sufficient height ; and, by the time 

 they are decayed, the banks will have become consolidated and 

 permanent. The river is navigable for vessels of a considerable 

 size ; and the force of the current, being now confined and 

 directed between these artificial banks, is sure to keep the 

 channel free and deep. A. large tract of valuable soil will thus 



VOL. II. 6 



