1S39.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



1-1.= 



is enriched, like most of the others in different parts of the porch, are 

 still in tlie Roman style. Several details recall the traditions of the 

 past, but already the representation of singular figures, capitals and 

 bases, decorated with lions and chimeras, showed that the imagination 

 of Christian artists was wandering from the rules laid down by the 

 Greeks. Sacred history, related in sculpture, begins to cover all the 

 zones of the facade, and images banished from the inside of the church 

 take their stand without. In the midst of the tympanum formed by the 

 springing of the arches, is God the Father surrounded by emblems of 

 the Evangelists, above on the lintel are represented the Apostles, on 

 the right of the Almighty the elect, and on the left the damned. Be- 

 tween the columns of marble which decorate the anterior parts of the 

 door, are carved saints and bishops, a resurrection and other religious 

 subjects. It may be observed that the arch already begins to assume 

 something of the pointed shape, which it was afterwards to retain so 

 long. The cloister of tlie church of St. Trophimus is one of the finest 

 known; the arcades of its porticoes are supported, by light columns 

 surmounted with capitals of good style, and all the jutting columns 

 which form the principal divisions of the galleries are decorated with 

 statues of life-size, and with numerous has reliefs, producing an ad- 

 mirable effect. Though the galleries of the cloister are of the same 

 period as the portal, the other two are of thp fifteenth century. 



At Vaison, at the foot of Mount Ventoux, at Cavaillon, at Pontoise, 

 !it St. Paul-trois-Chateaux, and in many other tovros of the south of 

 France, are to be seen churches or chapels, in which it is easy to per- 

 ceive that in the middle ages was formed a school of architecture, for a 

 long time imbued with the ancient principles. If we add that in the 

 royal church of St. Denis, founded in the fifth century by Saint Gene- 

 vieve, and at Montmartre, where was a chapel dedicated to St. Denis 

 are to be found marble capitals, decorated with the cross and other 

 Christian emblems, and yet executed in the form and with the charac- 

 ter of Roman capitals, it may be believed with good reason that the 

 primitive churches of the Gauls showed like those of Italy, a filiation 

 with Roman art, and that the tradition of classic forms was only lost 

 after a certain number of generations, and through the influence of 

 Byzantine, art imported from the east. At the same time we are able 

 to trace the germs of the subsequent styles, for in Anvergne, Baron 

 Taylor* found in a church of the Romanesque era, the arch decorated 

 with the chevron moulding. 



HARBOURS OF REFUGE. 



Practical Observations on Harbours of Refuge, and on the effect of 

 Back Waters or Sluices, as applied in the Scouring of Harbours. 



By H. Barrett. 



" Give harbour room, and public ways extend, 

 Let temples worthy of our God ascend, 

 Bid the broad arch the dangerous flood restrain. 

 The Mole projected break the roaring main. 

 Back to its bound the subject sea command, 

 And roll obedient rivers through the land." 



C'herboubg. 



The subject of our harbours having for some time attracted much 

 attention, and the recent appointment of Commissioners to investigate 

 and report npon the state of the harbours on the south-east coast, 

 having given rise to some discussion as to the proper principles which 

 should govern the construction of harbours generally, I am induced to 

 offer the following remarks as the result of my own experience and 

 observation on this subject, continued through many years and in 

 various parts of the world. 



In 1826, and again in 1827, 1 was examined before a committee of 

 the House of Commons on the subject of the then proposed harbour of 

 refuge at Lowestoft, the connexion of the sea with Lake Lothing, and 

 the improvement of the natural river navigation from thence to Nor- 

 wich, for vessels drawing 12 feet water, so as to make that city a port 

 via Lowestoft, and avoid the necessity of transhipment at the port 

 into river lighters, as at Yarmouth, through which means Norwich has 

 been for centuries supplied with coals and other sea-borne mer- 

 chandize. 



The following are extracts from the evidence given before the 

 Committee on the occasion I have referred to, viz. 



From the evidence of the Engineer. 



" My proposition is to carry 12 feet at low water into the Lake, and 

 I have no doubt on the outside it will scour deeper. 



• Journal, vol. 2, p. 194. a- 



Q. You will always have 12 feet into the Lake ? 

 A. Yes. 



Q. What will the depths be at high water? 



A. 20 feet. A vessel of 16 feet could enter during two thirds of 

 the tide, ;. e. at two thirds ebb. 



Mr. Telford. 



Q. Can you form an opinion as to the distance it will be from the 

 shore where the bar will form ? 



jl. There will be no bar — no deposit — next to none. 



Q. Will the water from Lake Lothing take it away? 



Jl. Yes ; but I say there will be no bar, by this operation of tli" 

 water, none at all. 



Mr. Barrett. 



Q. Do you think the sand carried out of the harbour would be 

 lodged on the flat and form a bar? 



A. Yes, and that it would lodge beyond the reach of the scouring 

 water of the Lake. 



Q. Then you think that an accumulation would take place ? 



.^. I am decidedly of an opinion that an accumulation would occur, 

 in the shape of a bar across the Harbour, and that at low tides even 

 small vessels could not enter in consequence of the accumulation." 



On my second examination before the Committee of the House of 

 Commons, which was in 1827, the following questions and answers 

 occurred, viz. 



" Q. You have a clear opinion that a bar will be formed ? 



./I. That is my opinion, and that the sluicing power will increase 

 the evil. 



Q. You have adopted a new hypothesis on the subject of a bar? 



A. I have, and differ with all the engineers as to the cause of bars. 



[See published evidence on the Norwich and Lowestoft Navigation, 

 in sessions 1826 and 1827.] 



The Act of Parliament having been obtained in 1827, the works of 

 the Harbour were proceeded with, and in 1831 the Lake was connected 

 with the sea ; the sluices were then applied in order to scour out the 

 newly excavated passage ; but the immediate effect after a very few 

 sluicings, was the formation of a bar opposite to the newly made en- 

 trance, the result being just as I had, in my evidence before the com- 

 mittees, stated it would be; and instead of 12 feet at low tide, 

 and 20 feet at high tide at the entrance, according to the engineers' 

 previous opinion as shown in their evidence, the result was that it 

 became nearly dry at low tide, so that no vessels could enter. Sucli 

 was the injurious consequence of the sluicing water. 



In 183-2, after the effects of the sluicing had been developed, a re- 

 monstrance was addressed by letter to the directors of the Harbour, 

 by pilots and others residing at Lowestoft, in which they said, 



" Deeply sensible of the advantages, national as well as local, at- 

 tainable by the construction of an efficient harbour, at Lowestoft, we 

 cannot but view the present with a feeling of regret, its entrance en- 

 cumbered with a shoal or bar. We understand that the Commissioners 

 for the Public Works are willing to lend .£.50,000 on mortgage, and 

 we strongly recommend the appointment of an experienced nautical 

 engineer." 



From the fatal error in the use of the sluicing waters, added to the 

 mistaken mode of construction adopted, the whole undertaking be- 

 came a failure, and the entire property, with piers, wharfs, buildings, 

 engines, &c., have been recently submitted to puljlic auction bj' the 

 loan commissioners as mortgagees for £.50,000 advanced by them ; 

 but the Harbour and all the property which had cost about £140,000, 

 would not fetch £15,000, and were consequently bought in. 



As far back as the year 1823, I published a pamphlet admonishing 

 the public that it was impossible to construct a harbour of refuge on 

 the site and by the method then proposed, and afterwards adopted ; 

 the result of this undertaking has fully verified my predictions, which, 

 indeed, were founded on infallible data. Some time prior to that, 

 period, and before I developed my opinions on the certain effects of 

 egrtss or sluicing waters, I had visited and observed upon various 

 harbours in different parts of Europe, viz. St. Petersburgh, Nerve, 

 Revel, Dantzick, Konnigsberg, Copenhagen, Elsineur, Norway, Ham- 

 burg, Tonningen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Ostend, Brest, Bayonne, 

 Cadiz, Gibraltar, Malta, and on the coast of Africa ; also many ports 

 in England, Ireland, and Scotland, Shetland Islands, and the Orkneys. 



In none of those places did I find any exception to the thesis which 

 I have adopted relative to the injurious effects of egress, sluicing, or 

 scouring waters, and I venture boldly to assert that in no part of the 

 globe is there any exception, viz. 



" That wherever the mater passes from the interior into the ocean ivitlt 

 sufficient velocity to carry matter in suspension, and to cause a confict- 



