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A MAP OF THE EIVER FAL AND ITS TEIBUTARIES FEOM 

 A SURVEY MADE IN 1597, BY BAPTISTA BOAZIO. 



Exhibited by HENRY M. JEFPERY, Vice-President. 



This map (Plate D) is the first known to have been made from 

 an actual survey, and, although inaccurate in detail, has many 

 claims on our attention. Maps of an earlier date give bird's eye 

 views of the district, and are of little value, as it was shewn by 

 specimens exhibited to the meeting. In Boazio's map the several 

 tributaries of the Fal, small and great, are depicted as they 

 appeared at low water mark : the mud banks ( ' ose ' or ooze) the 

 bars of shingle, and, by the aid of dotted lines, the curves of 

 junction with the fresh- water affluents are exhibited : and in 

 some places (unhappily not numerous) the soundings of deep 

 water are recorded. 



Our editor, Mr. H. M. Whitley, first drew attention to this 

 map in 1881, and has since utilized its information in two 

 memoirs contributed to this Journal, (1) "on the recession of the 

 tide in Falmouth Haven," and (2) " on the silting up of the 

 Creeks of Falmouth Haven," Vol. vii, 1881. Mr. Whitley 

 following the lead of the late R. Thomay, has analyzed the 

 causes, and estimated the rate of such silting in the past three 

 centuries (about 1 foot in 30 years in the valley of the Fal), and 

 anticipated the future recession of the tide, which is of deep 

 moment to the trade of all the ports on the Fal. To quote a 

 single instance : the Carnon river in 1597 was navigable at low 

 water, nearly as far as Carnon Bridge, and there were four 

 fathoms of water at Tregose (now Daniell) point, whereas now 

 not a boat can pass two hundred yards above Eestronguet ferry.* 



* A description of the river and harbour by the late Mr. E. Osier, may be 

 read in the " Cornwall Gazette," July 1858. Mr. Thomas had written on the 

 same subjects in 1827. 



