156 History of Inland Transport 



works of improvement, to be in an inefficient state for these 

 purposes. There is, at present, no certainty that a barge 

 carrying seventy or eighty tons of cargo from the port of 

 Hull to Newark or Nottingham will arrive at its destina- 

 tion without being lightened on its way. A witness said, 

 ' Very often the traffic in dry seasons is left waiting for two 

 or three weeks on the road between Hull and Newark, which, 

 of course, is a very poor way of getting on with business.' ' 



On the Ouse (York), below Naburn Lock, the conservators 

 find it difficult to keep the channel at its proper depth by 

 reason of the great deposits of floating sand, or " warp," 

 distributed by the tides, the scour of the river being insufficient 

 to carry the warp out to sea. Vessels are at times unable to 

 navigate for several days, obstructive shoals are formed, 

 and the line of the channel is frequently altered. 



On the Bedford Ouse the traffic on the upper parts of the 

 river has come to an end, and, though there is still a small 

 amount between Lynn and St. Ives, " the river is in many 

 places very shallow and choked with weeds and mud, so 

 that barges are often stopped for days, and the use of steam 

 traction, up to St. Ives, is impossible." 



The Nen from Northampton to Wisbech is " navigable with 

 difficulty " where the water is sufficient at all by barges 

 of the smallest size ; but sometimes navigation even by these 

 barges is impracticable for weeks together in certain parts 

 of the river. Between Northampton and Peterborough the 

 course of the Nen is extremely tortuous. " It would," says 

 the report, " take a barge nearly three days to travel the 

 sixty-one miles by water, while the railway can carry goods 

 from Northampton to Peterborough in two hours." 



It is thus evident that rivers, whether navigable naturally 

 or rendered so by art, must be regarded as water highways 

 possessed of considerable disadvantages and drawbacks in 

 respect to inland traffic when they are on the scale and of 

 the type found in England. Dependent on the forces of 

 Nature ever active and ever changing rivers must needs 

 be the exact opposite of the fixed and constant railway 

 line unless those forces can be effectually controlled under 

 conditions physically practicable and not too costly. " Rivers," 

 says L. F. Vernon-Harcourt, in his book on " Rivers and 

 Canals," " are not always suitable for navigation, in their 



