146 
Scientific Inidligenee. 
[so. BEW SERIES, 
The Committee have elsewhere stated it as their opinion, that 
snch a Pier as is now proposed will he the best means of spanning 
the surf ; thej would now add that whaterer iroprovement of the 
port of Madras maj hereafter be undertaken, they are confident 
that it will be then admitted that the constraction of a Pile Pier 
was the first step to be taken. ^ 
Before closing their report the Committee woold Tentnre to offer 
a suggestion that a proposal should be made to Messrs. Sannders 
and Mitchell that in the execution of the work two lines of piles 
connected bj a platform should first be carried the surf, and 
that the ftill breadth should afterwards be completed. The Com- 
mittee feel confident that such a work would be sufficiently stable, 
and thej observe from the Contractor's pamphlet upon screw pil- 
ing, that its execution would be perfectly practicable. They admit 
that this mode of working would entail some incouTenience, and 
additional cost ; but the value of such a Pier for a year or two, in 
the opinion of the Committee, would be well worth the difference 
in expense, for if this plan was adopted, an immediaie benefit 
would be derived from the work. The Committee need hardly 
say that some limit in the time of execution should be entered in 
the specification. 
MemonmdMm om the popers etmecUd with the proposal for a Pier at 
Jfadrat, ly Colonel A. Conoir. 
It appears from the Report of the Committee on this question, 
that they considered themselves called upon rather to give their 
opinion upon the practicability, cost and advantages of a Pier ; 
and not to go into the greater question of what upon the whole it 
might be best to do at the present juncture for the improvement 
of the Port of Madras. 
The point-i the Committee proposed to themselves for examina- 
tion were, 
1st, The practicability of a Pier on piles. 
2nd. Its fitness, with reference to its effect on the Coast 
line, kc. 
