58 ON THE RECLAMATION 



Morecambe Bay, the Forth, and the Dee, do not present much 

 encouragement as to the prospective value of enclosures made 

 on a large scale ; whereas such enclosures as those on the Tay 

 and the Eibble, where the deposit was not unduly hastened, but 

 left to the gradual action of the tide, are found to afford satisfac- 

 tory results. Moreover, Mr Clark's views, as his paper indicates, 

 are given apparently irrespectively of the interests of navigation, 

 as he seems to contemplate reclaiming the shores even of the 

 Mersey, though he very truly adds that to make such an attempt 

 would create a " panic." Now, however important it may be 

 agriculturally to gain acres from the sea, it can never, in my 

 opinion, be justifiable to convert sea into land to the detri- 

 ment or injury of the free navigation of our rivers and har- 

 bours, and it must ever be a duty of our Legislature to see 

 that navigation is not sacrificed to agricultural speculation. 

 But I have, I think, shown that the extent to which reclamation 

 can be carried as a profitable agricultural speculation is really very 

 limited, and that if such reclamations are made on sound engineer- 

 ing principles, they do not necessarily interfere with navigation. 



In accordance with these views, I stated in the first edition of 

 my treatise on Eiver Engineering, published in 1858, "With 

 , reference more particularly to the operations of landowners, it is 

 notorious that in many cases attempts to reclaim or protect pro- 

 perty have led to serious and costly legal proceedings between 

 landowners and the local conservators of navigations ; and this, 

 we are sensible, has in some instances arisen from a feeling on 

 the part of the landowners that their operations could not be 

 regarded as prejudicial. The local conservators, on the other hand, 

 have generally no means of knowing what the ultimate intentions 



