978 REPORT— 1898. 



construction ; to tlie great recent developments of Rouen, Dunkirk, Antwerp, and 

 Amsterdam ; to the improvements of the Danube and the Mississippi. In all of 

 these cases the natural characteristics of the localities were quite unsuited to 

 the requirements of an advancing trade in modem vessels, hut the inexorable 

 demands of commercial shipping have created the supply, at the hands of engineers, 

 of improvements and modifications of Nature, which are so large and important 

 that, to an unprofessional eye, they might now almost appear, at least in some of 

 the cases which I have mentioned, to be physical characteristics of the locality. 



I think that we may safely say that trade will produce the required accom- 

 modation, and that accommodation in itself will not create or attract trade. 



Bristol is a case in point, and it is interesting to us at this meeting to note, 

 however briefly, some of the important works which have altered and are 

 altering its capacity as a port. At the end of last centurj- Bristol and its capabilities- 

 were, as they have been almost ever since, the battlefield of civil engineers, and we 

 know that reports and projects were made by most of the men who were then 

 recognised as authorities. The diversion of the river Avon and the construction of 

 the floating harbour of Bristol, which were carried out under the advice of William 

 •lessop in the years from 1804 to 1809, were boldly conceived and ably executed. 

 The result of the diversion of the Avon by means of what is still known as the new 

 cut enabled the old course of the river to be made into a floating liarbour of about 

 71 acres, of which 57 acres are available for vessels of considerable size. The 

 total cost seems to have been about 600,000/. Though the greatest draught of 

 water in the floating harbour (some 20 feet) and the dimensions of the original 

 locks (150 feet long and 38 feet wide) may appear to us at the close of the nine- 

 teenth century somewhat insignificant, they were, no doubt, up to the estimated 

 requirements of that da\', and I think we can recognise in Jessop's work the im- 

 press of a great mind. 



The Cumberland Basin was deepened and improved, and the lock accommoda- 

 tion was increased by Brunei in 1850 by the construction of a lock 350 feet long 

 and 62 feet wide, and again by Howard in 1871, who made another lock 350 feet 

 long, 62 feet wide, with 23 feet of water at high water of neap tides. This is the 

 present limitation of the access of shipping to the town docks, and, though we 

 realise its insufficiency for modern vessels, we can appreciate the energy of those 

 who have gone before us, and who found the funds for or designed works which 

 have for so many years well fulfilled their purpose. 



The approach to Bristol from the sea — that is to say, from King Road in the 

 Bristol Channel — is certainly unpromising for large ships, and indeed, when con^ 

 templated at low water, appears not a little forbidding. Something has been done, 

 and further works are in progress, towards straightening, deepening, buoying, and 

 lighting the tortuous course of the Avon below Bristol. More, no doubt, would 

 have been undertaken in former years, if the great rise of tide in the river had not 

 provided, at spring tides, a depth and width for navigation which were sufficient for 

 practical purposes, until the size of modern ships imperatively demanded increased 

 facilities of approach. I think it is a remarkable thing that vessels of 3,000 tons 

 burden, 320 feet in length, and drawing 26 feet of water, succeed in reaching 

 Bristol, and that the trade in the heart of the city continues to increase. 



Those acquainted with the strong tides of the Avon, or with its bends, which 

 do not exceed in places a radius of 800 feet, and, lastlj-, with what might be the 

 consequences of a long vessel grounding in a channel which has only a bottom 

 width of 100 feet, cannot but recognise the skill and nerve of pilots in the navigating 

 large vessels from King Road to Bristol. This is done by night as well as by day, 

 and so successfully that the rate of insurance for Bristol is no more than it is for 

 Avonmouth or Portishead, the entrances of which are in the Severn, or than for 

 many ports situated on the open sea. 



We have similar examples of what can be done by the systematic develop- 

 ment of pilotage skill in the Hooghly, the River Plate, in the Yangtse Kiang. 

 the Mississippi, and other rivers where special men have been evolved, as it 

 were, by the demand, and navigate with safety and success channels which are 

 BO full of dangers that they might well appear impracticable. Experience, indeed. 



