44 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
cepted from the low and thickly inhabited district, which is tide-locked and 
subject to floods. The storm-waters will be discharged into Deptford Creek, 
whilst the sewage and a limited quantity of rain will flow by four iron 
pipes laid under its bed, each 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, into the outfall 
sewer." * 
Again: “The main line varies in size from 4 feet 6 inches by 8 feet 
at the upper end to 10 feet 6 inches, of the same form as the branch by the 
side of which it is constructed.” 
Again: “The falls of the main line are at the upper end 53 feet, 26 
feet, and 9 feet per mile to the Effra sewer at the Brixton Road, and 
_ thence to the outlet, 23 feet per mile. The sewer is erected in brickwork, 
varying in thickness from 9 inches to 221 inches, that forming the invert 
being in Portland cement, and the remainder in blue lias mortar.” 
Again: “ The low-level sewer does not follow the course of the river as 
on the north side; but commencing at Putney it takes a more direct line 
through the low ground once forming the bed of the second channel of the 
Thames, and drains Putney, Battersea, Nine Elms, Lambeth, Newington, 
Southwark, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, and Deptford.” The Engineer 
adds that this district being mostly level was formerly much subject to 
be overflown, and to stagnation of waters, causing malaria, so much so that 
“the late Mr. R. Stephenson and Sir W. Cubitt forcibly described the 
effect of artificial draining by pumping as equivalent to raising the surface 
to the height of 20 feet. The low-level sewer has in fact rendered this 
district as dry and as healthy as any portion of the metropolis." 
Again: “ The Deptford pumping station is situated by the side of the 
Deptford Creek, and close to the Greenwich railway station. The sewage 
here is lifted from the low-level sewer to a height of 18 feet into the outfall 
sewer. Four expansive condensing rotative beam engines, each of 125 h.p., 
and capable together of lifting 10,000 cubic feet of sewage per minute to 
a height of 18 feet, are here constructed.” 
Relating to the southern outfall sewer: ‘‘The large volume of water 
met with in the marshes rendered the construction of that portion of the 
work very costly. These marshes originally formed part of the Thames, 
and were first enclosed, in the reign of Edward I., by the monks of Lesnes 
Abbey. Two thousand acres were afterwards flooded by the bursting of 
the river banks in the reign of Henry VIIL, and were not again reclaimed 
until the reign of James I." 
Again: “ The outfall of the sewage at the south side of the Thames is 
at Crossness reservoir and pumping station. The sewage is discharged into 
the river at the time of high water only; but the sewer is at such a level 
* Written in 1865, 
