ON PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING FEATURES OF THE MERSEY. 549 
being sheltered by Ireland from the tumultuous and overwhelming seas 
of the Atlantic, and further guarded by the flanking coasts of Wales, 
Cumberland, South Scotland, and the off-lying Isle of Man, its position— 
as an examination of the map of the British Isles clearly shows—is 
assimilated more to a port situated within a large lake, like those of the 
North American Continent, than one on an open and exposed seaboard ; 
while the numerous sheltered roadsteads, deep estuaries, and good har- 
bours abounding along these coasts afford such facilities for economic 
interchange of traffic as nowhere else exist throughout the coasts of Great 
Britain. 
To these peaceful advantages is to be added the invaluable feature of 
its unique position as regards safety in time of war, for, though modern 
battleships, by reason of their great speed and comparative invulnera- 
bility, are able to swoop down and make unlooxked-for raids on an enemy’s 
coast, it may be considered that, while England maintains her supremacy 
of the sea, a prudent hostile commander would scarcely risk annihilation 
by attacking a seaport such as Liverpool, approachable only through the 
well-guarded narrows of St. George’s Channel, or the still narrower and 
more easily watched North Channel by the Mull of Cantire, and further 
protected by the mass of banks outside the port, the channels through 
which could be easily defended. Landward, Liverpool has a supreme 
advantage over the rest of England by being in close proximity to the 
chief centres of manufacturing industry, as well as to great coal-fields 
and salt-mines, which are most important adjuncts to its trade. 
Further swelling the list of favourable elements are the unusual and 
peculiar characteristics of the river Mersey itself; namely, a deep, 
capacious, and sheltered roadstead close to its mouth, with shores suitable 
for the construction of docks and approached by easy sea channels, and so 
large a tidal range and other such physical conditions as to enable it to 
maintain its natural advantages without the aid of art—except as regards 
its bar, eleven miles seaward of its mouth, where nature is now 
being assisted by special dredging operations to improve its deep-water 
condition. 
These salient advantages, now so briefly outlined, will readily account 
for the Mersey having been wisely selected as the best and most secure 
position for a great northern trading and distributing centre, to which 
the merchandise of the world now easily gravitates. 
The foresight evidenced in such a selection has been more than amply 
justified, for, from a small beginning, less than 200 years ago, when the 
era of the manufacturing trade of the northern counties was com- 
mencing, Liverpool has expanded pari passw with that trade, from its 
position of an insignificant fishing village of a few hundred inhabitants 
to that of the second, if not the premier, commercial port of the world, 
and now has, with its surrounding urban districts, a population of 
upwards of 800,000. 
This splendid and unrivalled progress, though in some degree owing 
to the foresight of its early founders and later administrators, is due 
primarily to the natural advantages before mentioned, and chiefly to the 
magnificent stretch of upwards of six miles of deep water which the 
Mersey presents and maintains immediately in front of the city and its 
suburbs, thus allowing docks of convenient form and size to be constructed 
along its foreshore, easy of approach, thoroughly sheltered, and in all 
respects suitable for ships of every class, both large and small. 
