888 _ REPORT—1896. 
sickness throughout the voyage were driven to their cabins and berths within three 
or four hours of landing. 
Owing to the very successful dredging operations, ships of largest size can now 
enter or depart from the Mersey at any state of the tide, and they are also able to 
run alongside the landing-stage without the’ intervention of a tender. 
Such vessels as the ‘ Teutonic’ or ‘ Majestic,’ of nearly 10,000 registered tonnage, 
566 feet in length, 57 feet wide, and 37 feet deep; or the still larger vessels, the 
‘Campania’ or ‘ Lucania,’ of nearly 13,000 tons tegister, 601 feet in length, 65 feet 
in width, and 38 feet in depth, can be seen, on mail days, lying alongside. 
Whilst the estuary of the Mersey presents a narrow entrance with a wide 
internal estuary, the Dee, owing to extensive reclamation of land in the upper 
reaches, has a wide external estuary leading to an embanked river of very limited 
width, up which the tide rushes with great velocity laden with silt, rising in some 
two hours, then, during a short time of slack water, depositing the silt, which is 
not removed by the ebb-tide, spread over some ten hours, and therefore having 
comparatively little velocity. In this case, also, the outer estuary shows a great 
tendency to silt up beyond the reach of any but the highest spring tides. 
The reclamation of the Ribble has not yet proceeded so far as to so seriously 
affect the general conditions of the estuary ; but here, also, there is a constant 
tendency in the channels to shift, and the erosion which takes place when a high 
tide and wind combine is very remarkable. ; 
A most important improvement was introduced in 1886, by Mr. G. F. Lyster, 
when it was decided to raise the water-level in certain of the docks by pumping, 
the wharves being heightened in proportion, and half-tide basins, or locks, made 
use of to compensate for the difference of level. 
The area of the docks so treated in Liverpool is 78 acres, whilst at Birkenhead 
the whole area of the docks on that side of the river, amounting to 160 acres, is so 
raised. 
The hydraulic power used in the docks is very large, the indicated horse-power 
of the engines amounting to 1,673 in the case of Liverpool, and 874 in that of 
Birkenhead; whilst the Hydraulic Power Company are supplying some 1,000 h.p. 
to railways and private firms. 
The direct-acting hydraulic lifts of the Mersey Railway have now been at work 
for ten years, and through these, at St. James's Station, no less than 75,000,000 to 
80,060,000 of passengers have passed with regularity and safety. 
It is remarkable that, whilst Great Britain led the van in the introduction of 
steam locomotion, she has lagged in the rear as regards electric and other 
mechanical traction. This arose in the first instance from mistaken legislation, 
which strangled electrical enterprise, which is still much hampered by the reluctance 
of public authorities to permit the introduction of the necessary poles and wires 
into towns. 
At the date of the latest published returns there were at work in the United 
States no less than 12,133 miles of electric, in addition to 599 miles of cable, 
tramway. Hardly a large village but has its installation, and vast have been the 
advantages derived from these facilities. In Brooklyn one company alone owns 
and works 260 miles of overhead trolley lines. With the exception of some small 
tramways at Portrush, Brighton, Blackpool, South Staffordshire, Hartlepool, &c., 
the only examples in this country of serious attempts to apply electro-motive force 
to the carriage of passengers are the City and South London Railway and the 
Liverpool Overhead Railway, the latter being the latest constructed, and haying, 
therefore, benefited by the experience gained upon the London line. 
This railway is over six miles long, a double line of the normal, or 4 ft. 83 in. 
gauge, running on an iron viaduct for the whole length of the docks ; the installa- 
tion is placed for convenience of coal supply about one-third of the distance from 
the northern end. Particulars of this interesting work will be placed before the 
Section, but suffice it to say that a train service of three minutes each way is 
readily maintained, with trains carrying 112 passengers each, at an average speed 
of twelve miles per hour, including stoppages at fourteen intermediate stations. 
