16 ON THE RECLAMATION 



if their slope and sectional area be small, be subject to sudden 

 and destructive floods bearing a very high ratio to their ordinary 

 discharge. 



But under whatever circumstances and to whatever extent 

 the floods in rivers take place, their destructive effect on pro- 

 perty is too well known to require illustration, and the means 

 of securing the prevention or amelioration of such disasters 

 cannot receive too much attention. In using the words pre- 

 vention or amelioration, it is perhaps almost unnecessary to 

 explain that I do not refer to floods of .such calamitous and 

 overpowering violence as that already alluded to, which occur- 

 red in Morayshire in 1829, and has been so well recorded by 

 Sir T. Dick Lauder, as " bordering on the marvellous, and ruin- 

 ing property to an extent that defies calculation." * On that 

 occasion the Spey, where fully a mile wide, rose 10 feet 2 inches, 

 and where half a mile, 13 feet 9 inches. The Doveran rose 18 

 feet ; the Dee in Braemar, with an average breadth of 130 feet, 

 rose from 15 to 16 feet; and the Findhorn at some places rose 

 as much as 50 feet above its summer water level. Such a visita- 

 tion is clearly beyond all human control, but the remarks I have 

 to offer refer to certain periodic inundations which, in some 

 localities, are of occasional if not frequent occurrence, and are 

 regarded as phenomena that may be expected at least every 

 two or three years, almost as certainly as the biennial equi- 

 noctial spring tides of the ocean ; and though the districts over 

 which such occasional floodings extend may form but a small 

 portion of the agricultural area of the country, still the very 



* Account of the Morayshire floods of 1829. 



