28 



REPORTS ON TORONTO HARBOUR. 



Esplanade by which shipping accommodation may so largely be 

 extended, I can discover no necessity by which to justify so costly 

 and I fear so doubtful if not dangerous an experiment. 



Having thus expressed my opinion on all the points submitted 

 in your advertisement, I shall now take leave to direct your at- 

 tention to another, and in my opinion, the most important of all 

 the questions relating to the efficient preservation of this Harbour. 

 Until a comparatively recent period the formation to which this 

 Bay is due was entirely consistent with the most admirable pro- 

 visions of Harbour capacity, shelter, anchorage, and the conve- 

 niences of navigation. Up to such a period (and it is demonstrated 

 by the charts) Nature was engaged in work eminently useful, and 

 in a manner most fortunate and unimpeachable ; nor did our pre- 

 decessors fail to discover how excellent a haven had been formed, 

 as to its inducements may be traced the selection of the site for the 

 city, just as surely as to its influence may be attributed the rapid 

 growth and great prosperity of this metropolis. At that time, and 

 it may be taken as A.D. 1800, Nature began to destroy that which 

 she had herself so well completed, and recently by such palpable 

 encroachments on the Entrance to the Bay as naturally to induce 

 alarm lest its commercial value might be endangered. 



I have already shewn how regularly and constantly this en- 

 croachment has been proceeding, how year after year the channel 

 has been decreasing in width and the shoal extending, and I have 

 endeavoured to trace the source and causes to which these dan- 

 gerous accumulations are to be attributed, showing, I trust 

 satisfactorily that the same agencies are engaged to this day 

 in the same work of injury. 



And yet it is strange that with the exception of the construction 

 of the Queen's Wharf in 1S35, and its extension in 1853, works 

 in my opinion entirely inconsistent with, and as the event has 

 proved entirely inadequate to the object sought, no effort has been 

 directed to the preservation of the present Harbour channel, but 

 public attention has been attracted by speculative and ambitious 

 attempts to alter where alteration is unnecessary and dangerous, 

 and to improve that which Nature has left perfect to our hands ; 

 neglecting meanwhile the one and only point in which her opera- 

 tions may be regretted and where interference is justified by 

 danger. It is to this point that I shall now address myself, con- 

 vinced that if this be neglected works at no other place can com- 

 pensate for the omission or preserve the Harbour in an efficient 

 state. 



In the Harbour Master's Report of January last, he says, "Upon 

 the faith of the current (to which in a preceeding paragraph he 

 declares that the Harbour owes its navigation) the extension of 

 the Queen's Wharf was advised, and although it is as yet only 

 constructed half its length, a widening in the channel has already 

 taken place." I have already proved (by demonstration of actual 

 measurement) that the currents here are too feeble to be of any 

 service in retarding or removing the deposit, and the declaration 

 of the Harbour Master appears to be inconsistent with the facts. 

 This is scarcely extraordinary, for unless the measurements be 

 made with the greatest delicacy and reduced to a well-established 

 datum, it is difficult, nay impossible, (owing to the frequent varia- 

 tions in level), to arrive at accuracy. 



Erom recent measurements made by me in continuance of the 

 whole system of survey upon which the charts have been laid down, 

 it appears indisputable that since the extension of the Queen's 

 Wharf was brought to its present state, and in the space of 128 



days the ten feet water line of the shoal has been projected fifteen 

 feet, the eight feet line twelve feet, and the six feet line twenty- 

 five feet into the channel northerly, thus diminishing its widths 

 by those amounts. It is accordingly apparent that the Queen's 

 Wharf works, recent as well as remote, although fortuitously now 

 of eminent advantage in a commercial point of view, have failed 

 in the engineering service for which they were advised ; and they 

 have failed because they have not resulted in strengthening the 

 current and creating a scour as was anticipated, because in truth 

 the current which has ever been inoperative in checking the shoal 

 formation is so still, being now as always superficial." 



In the paper to which I have so frequently referred I have de- 

 monstrated the manner in which this encroachment is proceeding, 

 and it is sufficient here to repeat that it is brought from the south- 

 ward, and that every effort to check it by the current has been 

 ineffectual. We may, therefore, reasonably abandon such an 

 expedient, which, however excellent and efficient it may be found 

 in tidal waters, should not, therefore, induce us to rely upon its 

 adequacy when attempted under such totally different circum- 

 stances. 



To preserve the Entrance from further encroachments of the 

 shoal and to arrest the beach drift at a convenient and safe distance 

 therefrom I would recommend the early construction of the fol- 

 lowing works : — 



1st. A groyne at the Lighthouse Point to retard the sand now 

 moving northerly, and divert it into deep water westerly. 



2nd. An auxilliary groyne opposite Gibraltar Point, to arrest 

 and counteract all progressive action along the west side of the 

 shoal, thus enabling all drift to accumulate south of the clear 

 water opening of the Bay and preserving the present extended 

 passages to facilitate the early removal of ice in spring. 



3rd. A Pier along the south edge of the channel as shewn on. 

 the plan of a total length of 290 yards, cutting off about 350 feet 

 from the point of the shoal to a depth of twelve or fourteen feet 

 by dredging, thus enlarging and permanently deepening the navi- 

 gable entrance from 240 as now to 600 feet as proposed. With 

 such work properly constructed, I am confident in the opinion 

 that the difficulties hitherto connected with the western channel 

 would be removed, and that the Entrance to the Bay would be 

 permanently preserved in an efficient condition. The Harbour 

 would then be such as for extent and convenience, would I believe 

 be altogether sufficient and satisfactory, And I take leave very 

 respectfully to repeat my conviction that it is more consistent 

 with prudence to content ourselves by checking an ascertained 

 evil, by simple, palpable, and safe expedients, than to rush wildly 

 into costly experiments having no actual bearing on, and at a dis- 

 tance from, the only evil by which we are embarrassed in the 

 frail hope of begetting an advantage of uncertain value. 



The following is an approximate estimate of the several works 

 proposed : — 



1st. A groyne at Lighthouse Point, 450 



feetinlength £900 



2nd. A groyne near Gibraltar Point, 800 



feetinlength 600 



3rd. A Pier at the entrance, estimated 14 

 feet under water, and 55,000 cubic yards 



dredging 10,200 



4th. Two groynes at the Isthmus 850 



£12,550 



