MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 189 
Secondly, the entrance being well protected and in deep water, 
and the channel being straightened and removed from the neigh- 
bourhood of the sunken rocks, the port would be made available 
for the passage of large vessels, and could be entered without dan- 
ger in all weathers. The benefit that would follow the opening 
up ot this seaport, and the increased wealth and prosperity it 
would confer upon this valuable portion of our territory, does not 
require to be enlarged upon inthis paper. The straightening of 
the entrance channel would be by no means as formidable an un- 
dertaking as it at first appears, tor with the proposed breakwater 
once constructed, this would be the natural course of the river. 
A remarkable instance of the ease with which the channel of a 
river may be diverted from one bank to the other is given in the 
case otf the Missouri River, where by the construction of a com- 
paratively inexpensive dyke, the centre of the channel of this great 
river was shitted from the west to the east bank, a distance of 
nearly 2000 feet; andin a few months theriver cut for itself a new 
channel many feet in depth. (See Railyoad Gazette of New York 
for Nevember 30, 1883.) This case clearly demonstrates the prac- 
ticability of the works proposed for the Clarence. The entrance 
to the Clarence has been compared to that of the Hunter, and it 
has been argued that when carried out on similar lines in the two 
cases should have like results. Careful consideration will show 
that there is but littie grounds for such conclusions. The two en- 
trances are alike in this respect, that they are both protected on 
the south by a natural breakwater; but in the most important 
particular, as far as the treatment of the bars is concerned, the 
cases are widely different, for whilst the entrance to the Hunter is 
in a great measure protected from the N.E. wind by the easterly 
direction of the coast-line between Newcastle and Port Stephens, 
the Clarence is exposed to its full force, and, as is well-known, the 
long prevalence of N.E. winds have a prejudicial effect on the river 
entrances exposed to them, as is evidenced by the heaping up of 
the sand at all such rivers: thus clearly showing the necessity of 
treating each case according to its own special requirements. To 
carry out the works proposed by the author at the entrance to the 
Clarence, would probably cost about £150,000 to £160,000. In 
coming to the above conclusion as to the best method of treating 
the Clarence River, the author has been guided by the experience 
gained in the successful treatment of the Tyne, Tees, Liffey, 
Danube, the Kurrachee mouth of the Indus, and the recent great 
works at the mouth of the Missisippi, in all of which cases the 
object kept in view has been the protection of the entrance from 
the wave action, and improving the scour by making the entrance 
_channel as straight as possible; whereas the existing works on the 
Clarence, in his opinion, merely deal with the “result”? brought 
about by the disturbing action of the waves and tide, instead of 
treating with the ‘‘cause” by protecting the tidal action from the 
disturbing action of the waves, which would be the case if the 
works proposed by the author were carried out. The entrance to 
the Bellinger River is rather a complicated case, judging from the 
country map and the Admiralty chart, and in the absence of a de. 
tail chart of the river it would be unwise to speculate on the best 
method of improving it. The Nambuccra and Manning Rivers 
have more direct entrances than any of the rivers above-mentioned, 
