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but there are few who have written of navigation, tliathave 

 not (hewn the infufficiency of this method. 



Reckoning, Dead. See Dead Reckoning. 



RECKSON, in Geography, a town of Bengal ; 6 miles 

 E. of Calcutta. 



RECLAIMING, or Reclaming, in our .^ncietit Cuf- 

 toms, tlie aftion of a lord purfuing, profecuting, and recal- 

 ling his vallal, who had gone to live in another place, witliout 

 his permiflion. 



Reclaiming is alfo ufed in a fimilar fenfe, for the de- 

 manding of a perfon or thing to be delivered up, or fur- 

 rendered, to the prince or it ate it properly belongs to ; 

 when, by any irregulaf means, it has come into the pofrefiion 

 of another. 



Reclaiming, in Falcon/y, is the calling of a hawk, or 

 bird of prey, back to the fill. 



The Ipavrovv-hawk, gos-liawk, &c. are reclaimed with the 

 voice ; the falcon only by ftiaking the lure. So that the 

 term luring, with regard to the falcon, is more proper than 

 reclaiming. 



The partridge is alfo faid to reclaim her young ones, 

 ■when (he calls them together upon their fcattering too much 

 from her. 



Reclaiming is alfo ufed for taming animals that are wild 

 by nature. 



Reclaiming, in a monadic fenfe. See Religious. 



Reclaimins Lands, in yigriculture, the bufinefs of re- 

 ftoring and bringing them into a ftate of cultivation and im- 

 provement. There are various kinds and dates of land, 

 which admit of this fort of amelioration and improvement ; 

 as among the wet forts, all thofe of the bay or clUiary de- 

 fcription, which are wadied and occafionally covered by the 

 fea or other waters ; different defcriptions of fen lands, and 

 thofe of the more lirm marlhy nature, and thofc in more in- 

 terior (ituations, wkich are of a loofe fwampy or watery 

 quahty, as moraffes and boggy grounds. And among 

 thofe of the more dry, hard, walte, and wild defcriptions ; 

 all the varieties of the rough ftony forts of unimproved 

 lands ; the many different kinds of rough woody grounds ; 

 and the numerous forts of moory lands, as well as other va- 

 rieties, which are now and then to be met with in particular 

 circumftances and (ituations. 



The firft of the wet or watery forts of land, noticed 

 above, are far from being always ready, or in a ripe (late 

 for admitting improvement of this nature ; yet in different 

 fituations and circumtlances, they occafioiially permit of its 

 being accompli(hed, without any great difficulty or trouble. 

 See Embankment, and Embanking agatnjl the Sea. 



The fenny and mar(hy lands, where, in the former, they 

 are wholly or only in a partial manner overgrown by iifelefs 

 aquatic plants ; and in the latter, are become fo firm as to 

 bear pafluring (lock, and to afford nutritious herbage for 

 their growth and fupport, but are notwithdanding (lill liable 

 to be overflowed by high tides, or land floods ; are, of 

 courfe, capable of very great improvement in the above 

 ways, as well as by many other means. See Fen, Fenny 

 Land, Marsh Land, and Salt Marjli. 



Thefe forts of watery lands are not incident to the flat 

 bays and inlets of the fea-coalls, or the mouths of the large 

 rivers, in a particular manner ; but are met with in the more 

 inland fituations of the country, accompanying the larger 

 rivers and waters in the more central parts of the kingdom : 

 confequently fuch forts of improvement mull be very ex- 

 tenfive in their nature, and of very great importance to the 

 nation. 



The other kinds of fwampy watery lands, which are liable 

 to be covered with that fluid during wet feafons j thofe on 



6 



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the fides of lakes and ponds ; the morafl'es which are choaked 

 and grown up with aquatic vegetables, fo as to have fome 

 fort of hardifli cruft; formed upon them ; and the foft boggy 

 lands, formed in fomewhat fimilar ways, are all capable of 

 allowing great improvement, by fuitablc draining, and other 

 methods of management. See Spring and Surface 

 Draining, SwAMi', Bog, and Mokass. 



Lands of the above kinds are moflly met with on the 

 lower (lopes, or at the feet of hilly grounds ; being caufed 

 by the (lagnation of water in their internal parts, wnich has 

 the effcft of chilling and rendering them too moid for the 

 produftion of a nutritious and ufcful herbage, as well as of 

 promoting the growth of coarfe plants of the aquatic na- 

 ture, though their fituations may occafionally have fome 

 degree (;f relative height. 



There are many valuable tradls of land of thefe kinds, in 

 many different parts of the ifland, which have been already 

 reclaimed by thefe methods of proceeding ; which fliould 

 have the e(feft of (linmlating the owners of fuch lands in 

 other places, where they (till remain unimproved, to exert 

 themfelves in getting them reclaimed. 



Among the more dry kinds of unreclaimed lands, the 

 fird, or thofe of a rough, llony, wade quality, are all thofe 

 in the vallies of hilly or mountainous tracls, on the fliirts or 

 lower parts of mountainous heights, and the rough dony 

 lands, fit for cultivation, in other fitustions. They are the 

 mod readily r:;claimed and improved, in the lefs hilly forts 

 of lands and fituations. In fome cafes, where the furfaces 

 of the ground were in a great meafure covered by large 

 rocks and ftones of great fixes, very hard in their qualities, 

 and of fcarcely any value, the lands have been reclaimed, 

 and brought into an arable (late, and let for high rents : the 

 dones which were removed paying, in a great degree, the 

 expences of the labour ; they being exported and fold as 

 paving-dones, and for other ufes to the metropulis. And 

 though this cannot always be done, it (hews what is capable 

 of being performed by induftry and perfeverance ; and that, 

 where furface (tones can be turned to ufeful purpofes, the 

 mod rugged and barren lands may be reclaimed with advan- 

 tage, under proper modes of management. In fuch in- 

 ftances, inftead of leaving the furfaces of the grounds in 

 worfe dates than they were before, by being taken up with 

 pits, and heaps of ufelefs rubbifli, which buried the better 

 moulds, as is common in working fuperficial quarries, the 

 pits and other hollows were levelled, and filled up to fome 

 height, with the coarfe and rubbifh materials produced in 

 the courfe of the works, and the finer mould from other 

 parts thrown back upon the above fub-foil materials, fo as 

 to form an even top-foil ; the larger fpaces of the ground 

 being trenched over to a good depth, leaving the befl foil 

 on the furface. It is fuggeded, that by following (imilar 

 eafy methods of management, in carrying on other under- 

 takings of the fame kind, lands of a value in proportion to 

 that of the materials which are removed, may commonly be 

 created, without incurring any very great expence. Hence 

 it is thought to behove thofe who have the direftion and 

 management of landed edates, that comprehend grounds of 

 thefe forts, to examine and confider well whether the (tony 

 materials which they contain, and encumber their furfaces, 

 cannot be turned or converted to' fome profitable purpofe, 

 by the means of roads, iron railways, canals, or fome other 

 eafy mode of conveyance for fuch heavy fubftances. 



It mud be noticed, however, that the method of levelling 

 and trenching over the lands by the fpade, in fuch circum- 

 dances, can only be praftifed in a very few cafes, where 

 labour is particularly cheap. 



There is another defcription of itony lands, of a much 



lefs 



