316 



Farming of L incolnshire. 



wide, so as to serve the double purpose of admitting larger vessels 

 and affording a greater discharge for the drainage- water during 

 floods. The old bridges which obstructed the flow were removed, 

 and a new lock formed at a distance of 18 miles from the mouth 

 of the river. The sluice has three openings of 18 feet each, 

 which;, with the lock, give a clear waterway of 74 feet.* The 

 effect of these im])rovements (the cost of which, amounting to 

 24,000/,, is defrayed by a tax on the land and tonnage on the 

 navigation of the river) has been great : it was formerly a very 

 dry time if persons could get across the fiat on foot, but now 

 (except at occasional seasons) the drainage is comparatively good. 

 There is, however, a peculiar defect pertaining to the drainage 

 of these carrs : whilst the side drains communicating with the 

 river, and the minor drains and ditches of the whole level are 

 kept clean and open, and the sluices in the river banks are in 

 good order for issuing the water quickly, the head of water in the 

 river is too high ; and thus a district possessing a good fall at its 

 outlet, and an efficient system of internal drainage, is frequently 

 overflowed in wet seasons merely in deference to the rights of 

 navigation. This narrow tract forms the natural reservoir for 

 the drainage of 100,000 acres of the Wolds and intermediate 

 high lands, 50,000 acres of the Cliff" Hills, &c., and about 22,000 

 acres southward of that level ; so that about 200,000 acres dis- 

 charge by the Ancholme outfall, and the total bulk of waters 

 daily poured through the river has been estimated at 140,000,000 

 of cubic feet, being sufficient to cover the entire level to a depth 

 of 1*37 inches. The river is capable of readily emptying this 

 quantity during the interval of the falling and rising again of the 

 tide to a certain level, though the sluice is kept closed more than 

 half the time; but as the navigation requires the river water to 

 be about 11 feet higher than low- water spring tides in the 

 Humber, the sudden floods are not evacuated with sufficient 

 rapidity, and a defective drainage is the consequence. As the 

 spring tides rise here to the average height of about 22 feet 

 (much more in some instances), and the surface of the land is in 

 the centre of the district 9 feet beneath high-water mark, there 

 will be about 2 or 3 feet fall from the surface of the soil to the 

 level of the water in the river, but at neap tides considerably less ; 

 and if this fall could be maintained a sufficient drainage would 

 ensue. t But in order to receive the waters from uplands of six 



* Two sluice-gates were provided for eacli opening in the sluice : they are self- 

 acting, being shut by the tide, and opened by the head of fresh water as soon as the 

 tide falls below the level of the water inside. The openings are also furnished with 

 draw-doors, for regulating the navigation level (which is 13 feet 8 inches above the 

 sill), and to preserve a depth of 8 feet 9 inches at Brigg, whicli is nine miles distant, 

 and 6 feet 6 inches at Haarlem-Hill lock, eighteen miles distant. 



The drainage of the northern parts of the level is assisted by small drains having 



