AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 57 



lations, without injury to navigation, is a very wide question, of 

 which engineers take different views. 



Mr Hyde Clark, in a paper on the " Engineering of Holland," 

 published in Weale's Quarterly Papers in 1844, says " The fol- 

 lowing moderate estimate will show the large area available for 

 the enterprise of our capitalists and the skill of our engineers : 



England Humber, &c., 40,000 acres. 



The Wash, 60,000 



Suffolk and Essex, .... 40,000 



Hampshire and Dorsetshire, . . 10,000 



The Severn, 30,000 



Cheshire and South Lancashire, . 50,000 



Morecambe Bay, .... 40,000 



TheDuddon, 10,000 



Solway, . .... 20,000 



300,000 

 Ireland Loughs, 300,000 



" The total extent in the two countries cannot be estimated at 

 less than 1000 square miles, or 600,000 acres, worth at the lowest 

 average L.20 per acre, though most of it, as in Morecambe Bay 

 and Lough S willy, would be worth L.60 per acre."* The total 

 value of reclaimed land would be between twelve and twenty 

 millions sterling. 



I give these figures to show what large views have been pro- 

 pounded as to the practicability and prospective value of recla- 

 mations on the shores of this country. But I think some of the 

 facts I have stated on the authority of gentlemen intimately 

 acquainted with the details of each case regarding reclamations 

 actually made, such, for example, as Lough Foyle, Lough Swilly, 



* The information I have received, it will be seen, does not warrant such a 

 conclusion. 



