42 ON THE RECLAMATION 



personally cognisant of what they state, must be regarded as 

 valuable records of ascertained facts. Some instances will be 

 found of reclamations, on a small scale in favourable situations, 

 being highly satisfactory, while similar works in less favourable 

 localities have not proved so successful. It further appears that 

 the larger class of modern reclamations do not as yet seem to 

 have afforded very satisfactory financial results when viewed as 

 agricultural schemes. While the most successful reclamations 

 are those where, in the first instance, the foreshore has been 

 accreted by extensive training walls, constructed to improve 

 navigations, and having the effect of raising the banks on either 

 side of the estuary to the level of high water of ordinary spring 

 tides, and thus rendering the subsequent reclamation-works 

 comparatively easy and inexpensive. In such cases, however, it 

 would be obviously quite fallacious to value the cost of reclama- 

 tion at the comparatively small outlay required to protect and 

 drain land that has already been raised by navigation works to 

 such a level, as to be covered only by high spring tides. These 

 records will also, I think, be found most fully to bear out the 

 views I have already stated, which may be briefly summarised in 

 the following general propositions : 



First, That in order to insure success, the space to be re- 

 claimed must be within the influence of water containing much 

 alluvial matter, and not on the shores of an open sandy estuary. 



Second, That the spaces to be reclaimed should be allowed to 

 receive the deposit left by the tide for as long a period as pos- 

 sible, and the water should not be entirely excluded until they 

 have, by gradual accretion, attained the level, if possible, of high 

 water of ordinary spring tides. 



