THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Deo: 



itrhich might arise from springs, or they would have to get rid of floods 

 produced by the overflowing of rivers. In either case, the superfluity 

 should be got rid of in a natural way ; and, looking at the general charac- 

 ter of a district, this would be easy ordiflicuit, according to circumstances. 

 But, whatever the nature of the cilect to be produced, a knowledge of the 

 peculiar structure of the district was indispensable ; and a practical ap- 

 plication of geological knowledge would often help to produce a perfect 

 drainage, by taking advantage of the formation of the earth's crust. 

 Where beds of clay, or other impermeable soils at the surface, rested on 

 beds of sand, (he upper beds might be drained by means of perforations, 

 unless it happened that the sand, or gravel below, contained an excess of 

 water, in which case the attempted draining would increase, rather than 

 lessen, the water surface. This condition of the lower beds would, how- 

 ever, be detected by the geologist by a reference to the natural outlet. 

 Another simple and efficacious mode of draining a district, laid under 

 water by springs, was that of cutting a trench along the strata from which 

 the springs arose on their natural outcrop, and thus conveying the water 

 away. The drainage of the surface, however, and cutting olf springs, were 

 Tery difl'erent things, and belonged to entirely diflerent conditions of struc- 

 tare. 



The subject of drainage on a large scale was one of great importance ; 

 and though the drainage of the fen lands was a work generally intrusted 

 to the engineer, rather than to the geologist, yet a knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of drainage was necessary to the agriculturalist, if he wished to 

 take a full advantage of the work of the engineer. The principal works of 

 this kind were in England and Holland. In Lincolnshire and Cambridge- 

 shire, there was a vast tract of land nearly level, composed of a tough 

 clay, quite impermeable to water. It was partially drained by a number 

 of sireams which ran across it ; but which also drained the higher lands 

 and hills, by which the flat country was hemmed in on the land side. 

 These streams brought down a large body of muddy water, and their ten- 

 dency was to spread the mud over the low country. AV hen there was a 

 broad expanse of flat land, and a quaBtily of water thus running over it, 

 the fall being slight, a little thing served to check the passage of the drain- 

 ing streams. In the present instance, the Ouze, the Nene, the Gltn, and 

 the M'elland, and their tributaries, all ran along the surface of the clay ; 

 and if any accumulation of silt were allowed to remain at their mouths, 

 and they could not with facility empty their waters into the ocean, the move- 

 ment of the stream would be checked. If any foreign body should acci- 

 dentally fall into the stream, a portion of the bank on the other side of the 

 obstacle would be carried away ; and thus, supposing the water ran in a 

 straight line at first, it would, in a short time, deviate from that straight- 

 ness, and those meanderings which were so admired iu other rivers, but 

 which were so fatal in these, would be caused. The more tortuous the 

 course of the stream became, the slower would be its pace, and the less 

 effective its power as a draining agent. At the same time, the gradually 

 increasing accumulation of silt at the mouth would stop the ocean out, and 

 the flush of water from the river would be thrown back upon the land, and 

 thus the low lauds would eventually become a swamp. All this, however, 

 might be easily counteracted by keeping clear the streams, and removing 

 the obstructions at their mouths; but, supposing that the natural drains, 

 the rivers, were not sufficient to carry oflT the whole surplus water, some 

 further operations were necessary, such as artificial cuttings. One of the 

 results of draining being to make the land lower, embankments to keep 

 out the sea were required, and steam-engines, to pump the water from the 

 drains over the embankments into the ocean. The selection of the line of 

 these drains, and the carrying into effect the plans suggested by the cir- 

 cumstances, were operations which had to be performed by the engineers. 

 Of the fen districts of England, a great deal had already been done 

 towards their drainage — badly at the commencement of the undertaking, 

 but still a great deal also had been well done, and whole districts were 

 now in the course of being drained satisfactorily. The feu district was 

 divided into several sections, known by the names of the streams which 

 intersected them. The principal of these were the Ouze, the Nene, the 

 Glen, and the Wellaud. The lower part, called the Great Bedford Level, 

 in which the operations had been conducted in the most perfect manner, 

 and at a very enormous expense ; the drainage was partly eBected by two 

 great cuttings, parallel to each other, from St. Ives to Downhani, not far 

 from the place where the Ouze ran into the sea. The tract between the 

 cuttings, which comprised 5,000 acres, was used for the purpose of hold- 

 ing the suri)lus water, and so preventing it from running over the drained 

 land without the embankments of the two cuttings. In making canals of 

 this kind, the first and principal thing to be done was to construct safely 

 the embankments on either side, the water being lifted over from the ordi- 

 nary drains by means of steam power, llut the case was difl'erent when 

 the sea had a tendency to inundate a whole country, and required to be 

 kept out by embankments along a line of coast. This was the case of 

 Holland, of the delta of the Uhine, and of river deltas generally. Delias 

 consisted of the land formed by deposits of mud at the mouths of rivers. 

 There was often a considerable quantity of organic matter in this mud, 

 secreted by animalculae, which were killed by the action of the salt water 

 upon them. The difference between the condition of Holland and the fen 

 lands of England was this — in Holland, the soil was being daily added to 

 by deposits of river mud just at or below the level of the sea; while, in 

 England, it was land already formed, and just above the level of low 

 •water — so that all they had to do was to keep it so. To maintain their 

 position in Holland, draining operations, of the most gigantic extent, had 

 constantly to be kept going on, at a corresponding magnitude of cost. 



The geological conditions necessary to produce fen land were these :— A 

 river coming through a flat country tended to form a delta, which, as it 

 increased in size, became dry, or might be made so by draining. This 

 was one method ; but sometimes it happened that a stream ran through 

 flat clay lands near the sea level, when it naturally had no inducement to 

 move otherwise than sluggishly; while, on the least opposition, its banks 

 became washed away, and its waters spread over the adjacent lowlands. 

 It was not, in this case, difficult, by direct cuttings and embankments, and 

 a few steam-engines, to drain the country, and, by certain operations, to 

 clear the mouths of the rivers. On flat coasts a good deal might be, and 

 actually was, reclaimed from the sea by such means. It was proposed at 

 the present time to take in most of the enormous tract of land, now form- 

 ing the great bay called The Wash, simply by embankments, and, taking 

 advantage of natural advantages, narrowing the outlet of the rivers — en- 

 abling the sea to form its own embankment by silt— and pumping out the 

 superfluous water. In Holland, they had to pump out the water from 

 lands below the level of the sea : in this case, the embankment to keep out 

 the sea would alone be necessary, and there would be no great danger from 

 the sea, except at extraordinarily high tides. With regard to books on 

 this subject, there were many Dutch, and some English ones. The last 

 part of the Agricultural Journal, vol. viii., containing an account of the 

 present slate of the English fens ; M. De Beaumont's Lcfons tie Geology 

 Pratique, giving a long account of the deltas of most of the European and 

 other rivers ; Johustone's Lectures on Agricultural Clicmistrij and Geology, 

 and some other works on general drainage, were laid on the table at the 

 close of the lecture by Professor Ansted. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



DECORATIVE ART SOCIETY. 



Mr. DwvER read a paper on the 13th October, before the Society, on the 

 following questions: — \Vhat is high art? historical art? fine art? Sec, 

 Under what conditions do these become identical ? and what is the relative 

 value of each for the purposes of decorative art? 



Mr. Dwyer complained of the mysticism and want of definition in all 

 writers treating of what they call high art. For the most part, however, 

 we should find that the study of nature is held to be the starting-point 

 from which we are to be led away into a complexity of technicalities and 

 metaphysical reasonings. As in writings, so it would be found iu works. 

 The architect, sculptor, painter, and poet, each attempts a mysterious 

 grappling of mind with matter of fact, occasionally developing a high de- 

 gree of intellectuality with much that is either unmeaning or not easily 

 understood. Then there is the continually varying misapplication of tech- 

 nical terms in art, arising from an absence of principie in giving fixed 

 names to definite things, which renders it a matter of difficulty to under- 

 stand the proper limits and distinctions which exist between even such 

 terms as high art, historical art, fine art, &c. He had sought for precise 

 definitions from living artists of good repute and long standing, but ob- 

 tained none ; he had beard much of reasoning, in small circles as it were, 

 which convinced him that a more general and comprehensive knowledge 

 of art in its various phases would be useful, indeed, among its professors. 

 The ordinary criticisms of the day upon art were to him vague and mean- 

 ingless, and would generally, if divested of doubtful technicalities sind ex- 

 pressed in plain English words, expose their flimsy construction. In 

 tracing the progress of art, Mr. Dwyer felt that it had been strangely 

 handled, not alone from the restless ambition of some of its votaries and 

 professors, but still more so by the wanderings of others after the indefinite. 

 Princes and popes have at certain periods patronised its works, but he 

 considered that the attention at present directed towards art, throughout 

 Europe, would probably promote an unprecedented Progress. Neverthe- 

 less, he held art in itself to be capable only of slow progress, simply because 

 that must arise solely from a succession of improvements in imitative skill. 

 A parallel to the present demand for variety of style and character had not, 

 he said, existed in any previous period. In painting, sculpture, and archi- 

 tecture, we may learn to discover distinctive features marking a period, 

 and most clearly showing the development of progression. JNIr. Dwyer 

 contended that the sameness of fieatment in the works of most artists testi- 

 fies to the tenacity with which copying or imitation clings to all, and that 

 therefore it is essential to reflect and know, how far the difl'erent schools 

 of art have relation to each other in respect of imitation, — how much an 

 artist has been indebted to previous examples, — before we can adjudge to 

 him a qualitative rank. Mr. Dwyer then enumerated celebrated works 

 by Greeks, Romans, Italians, Venetians, French, Flemish, and Dutch, 

 which were, he maintained, in harmony with the tastes and moral disposi- 

 tions of the respective nations at the time they were produced, and also 

 that art is in a great measure localised — dependent on certain rules, as 

 developed by existing specimens, and by the position these held in the 

 public estimation, — that it is essentially a thing of time, place, and circum- 

 stance. By judging of works of art upon a particular consideration of 

 beauty, and by admitting one class of production as superior in rank to 

 another, without reference to a comprehensive view of art generally, a 

 great injustice has been engiafted on our received opinions upon art. 

 Distinctive ranks iu the departments of art, Mr. Dwyer contended, were a 



