490 



Works for the Belief of Unemployment. [Sept., 



presumably unaccustomed to working in or about watercourses, 

 and especially to the unsuitability of the winter season for 

 such work, no extravagant hopes w^ere entertained as to the 

 value of the results. So little confidence was felt by some of 

 the larger drainage authorities that they abstained from 

 submitting schemes. 



The real value of the results actually achieved has been a 

 most gratifying surprise to everyone concerned, and it is easy, 

 after the event, to reflect wisely upon the fact that a large 

 percentage of the men must have served a long and painful 

 apprenticeship, whilst on Military Service, to the art of trans- 

 forming swamps into "better 'oles." 



Apart from sea-defence and water-supply schemes, which 

 are referred to later, the great bulk of the work comprised 

 the thorough clearance of channels by the removal of fallen or 

 ingrowing timber or other accidental obstructions, and the im- 

 provement of their sections and gradients by cutting away 

 cesses, bends and shoals, and the digging out of old-established 

 weed roots; in a number of cases the straightening of sinuous 

 courses was effected by the cutting of new channels (see 

 Figs. 1 and 2). 



Perhaps the most ambitious effort of the Drainage Authori- 

 ties was that of the Middle Level Drainage and Navigation 

 Commission, in demolishing an old brick-arched bridge, carrying 

 the road between Wisbech and Downham over the Middle 

 Level Drain at Outwell and building in its place an entirely 

 new structure of steel and concrete (see Figs. 3 and 4). This 

 work w^as carried out most successfully by Major E. G. Clark, 

 A.M.Inst.C.E. , Engineer to the Commission, with direct 

 labour, mostly unskilled, and is in itself an eloquent testimony 

 to the adaptability of all concerned to the conditions under 

 which the work was undertaken. 



Other notable achievements by Drainage Authorities were : — 

 By the Welland Outfall Trust, the straightening, widening 

 and deepening of the tidal portion of the Eiver Welland over 

 a length of about 10 miles from its confluence with the Eiver 

 Glen to about 5 miles above Spalding (see Figs. 7 and 8); by 

 the Lugg Drainage Board, the general improvement on similar 

 lines to the above of the main river and its main tributaries 

 over a total length of about 32 miles; by the Ouse Drainage 

 Board, a like improvement of important channels within their 

 system, including those of the Thet, the Brandon, the Ivel and 

 the Old Bedford river: by the Muston and Yedingham Drain- 

 age Board in the clearance and improvement of considerable 



