754 EEPORT— 1889. 



the person making this prediction would have heen thought crazy. But suppose 

 he had gone farther and predicted that the fresh beef and mutton raised and 

 consumed in England, would find a successful rival in that raised in the Rocky 

 Mountains of America, or on the Pampas of South America, or in the interior of 

 Australia, the English farmer would have thought this prediction too absurd to 

 answer or notice. Both of these imaginary predictions have now been realised, and 

 the farmer finds that, handicapped as he is by high charges for transportation to 

 market, he cannot compete ; consequently his market is lost and his lands have 

 depreciated greatly in value. The remedy is simple : — 



Let the railways give the English farmer the same rates to market that his 

 foreign competitor pays, which can be done by adopting modern rolling stock and 

 railway practice ; or construct cheap railways on the American plan that will give 

 cheap transportation. When this is done the English farming lands will greatly 

 increase in value, manufacturers and miners will increase their work and be placed 

 on a favourable footing to compete with other countries in the markets of the 

 world. 



After six years careful study of the English railways, the author thinks that it 

 is possible, by adopting the practice that has answered very well in other places, to 

 make very large reductions in the cost of railway transportation, and that without 

 diminishing the present dividends. 



3. The Draught of Horses.^ By T. H. Bkiggs. 



4. The Application of the Transporting Power of Water to the deepening and 

 improvement of Eivers."^ By W. H. Wheeler, M.Inst.G.E. 



The object of this paper is to show : — 



(1) That the transporting power of water may be economically applied to the 

 deepening and improvement of rivers. 



(2) That under favourable conditions this can be accomplished by breaking up 

 shoals, or the natural bed of a river, by mechanical agency, and by mixing the 

 material with the water and allowing it to be carried away to the sea or estuary 

 in suspension. 



The successful application of the process depends on the complete disintegration 

 of the material and the thorough mixing of the particles so disintegrated with the 

 water by continuous stirring or churning, and so reducing it to the condition in 

 which alluvial matter is transported by rivers when in a turbid condition. 



It is shown by the paper that all rivers carry during seasons of flood large 

 quantities of matter in suspension, and it is contended that what is thus done 

 naturally may be imitated artificiallj^, and the rivers made the agents for theu* 

 own improvement. 



The disintegrating and mixing process which is effected by frosts and rains 

 on the alluvial matter which is carried away to sea may be applied to the bed 

 of a river, or shoals, by mechanical agency, and the material thus broken up 

 be transported away by the current The erosive and transporting power of water 

 is dealt with, and examples quoted of the enormous amount of alluvial matter 

 transported by some of the larger rivers. Instances are quoted to show that the 

 quantity transported amounts to as much in some cases as 2 lbs. of solid matter 

 in every cubic foot of water, or jVnd of the whole weight. 



Examples are given to show that a current of 8 feet per second is sufficient to 

 carry away material broken up from the bed of a river and mixed with the water 

 in the form of mud at the rate of ITS tons in twenty-four hours for every square 

 foot of area of water contained in a given section of the stream ; the transporting 

 power being equal to (T^th of the whole mass of water in motion. 



The power of water to transport material of much greater specific gravity than 



• Published privately by the author (Bradford, Yorks). 



' Printed in extenso in the Engineer, October 25 and November 8, 1889. 



