116 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Duhiin Society. 



position, and size of the embankments must be determined by a 

 knowledge of the action of wind-waves; and in all eases the 

 catchment drains should be made to meet the requirements of 

 extraordinary floods. 



For the improvement of corcasses and callows, that is the low 

 flooded lands adjoining estuaries and rivers, the size, form, and 

 position of the embankments should depend on the nature of the 

 floods to which the estuaries or rivers are liable ; making careful 

 provision for extraordinary floods. This point is often neglected, 

 the banks being made as close as possible to the margins of the 

 estuaries or rivers, thus leaving no room for the waters of exces- 

 sive floods. 



Formerly flooding with " dirty floods," or what is called in the 

 valley of the Trent and other places in England " warping," was ex- 

 tensively practised in Ireland to enrich the callows and raise their 

 levels. This has been discontinued in many places ; but it might 

 be profitably resumed in the cases of both upland and tidal rivers. 

 In the county Tipperary, adjoining the Little Brosna, I changed 

 altogether the nature of some callow land by cutting off" from it 

 the " Black flood " (boggy water) and warping it with " Red floods " 

 (muddy water) of the Little Brosna ; and the same thing might 

 be done in numerous other cases. Dirty tides might similarly be 

 utilized, if judiciously let on to the corcasses. This was well 

 illustrated about twenty-five years ago when the Lower Shannon 

 broke into the corcasses below the city of Limerick ; for although 

 great damage was done at the time, yet the flooding was allowed 

 to have greatly improved the meadows ; and the same thing has 

 been found when excessive tides have broken the banks in the 

 estuaries of the Barrow and other rivers. 



In many places there are facilities for warping intakes from the 

 sea, lakes, or rivers with muddy or otherwise fertilizing waters. 

 Warping with sewage is an expedient greatly, if not entirely, 

 neglected in Ireland. It has been done, indeed, in a small way, 

 on a few farms, the farmyard and house sewers being discharged 

 over meadows ; but it is neglected in connexion with towns. 

 Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, and other towns are most 

 favourably situated for changing tracts of slob-land and sands into 

 rich and fertile meadows, if only their sewage was utilized, instead 

 of being turned into the sea to drive away or kill the fish. 



