H2 THE MAKING OF NEW LAND 



from the river, comes some poor " carr " land, dis- 

 tinguished by a soil which is not peat proper nor quite 

 like" the black Fen soil, though it does contain an 

 enormous proportion of decayed vegetable matter, 

 among which the remains of comparatively recent 

 forest are very conspicuous. It forms, however, but 

 a poor soil, and requires to be warped ; at a still lower 

 level it passes insensibly into the moors, which have 

 more or less been reclaimed by the warping. All the 

 land must be artificially drained, and as the river bank 

 is approached a very complicated system of drainage 

 canals is seen at various levels and of all sizes. Some 

 of them, which only deal with small and comparatively 

 high areas, drain by gravitation, the sluices opening 

 automatically to let off the water at low tide ; in other 

 cases huge scoop wheels driven by steam are employed, 

 and are very cheap and efficient when the water has 

 only to be lifted a few feet ; for a higher lift centri- 

 fugal pumps must be employed. The maintenance of 

 these canals and the pumping stations is met by a rate 

 which varies between half-a-crown and ten shillings an 

 acre, according to the position of the area dealt with. 

 Fresh drainage areas are always being made or the old 

 ones are put under a more efficient system, but the 

 consent of four-fifths of the proprietors of the land 

 must be obtained before a new rate can be levied. 

 The result is a stretch of land of great fertility, a 

 curious country with the smoke of the Goole chimneys 

 on one horizon and that of the Frodingham ironworks 

 over against them on the other, a country traversed by 

 great waterways on which barges, almost worthy to be 

 called ships, sail high above the land, traversed too 

 by many railways bringing Yorkshire traffic to and 

 from the port of Grimsby. But in itself the country 

 is purely agricultural not perhaps for many years 



