1844.J 



of a Pier at Madras. 



57 



affords to a certain degree, not only the ease of communication may be 

 attained, but many other important benefits derived; I have formed the 

 other design, which at the same time that it embraces more extensive 

 accomodation, without being attended with much greater expence, will 

 tend to remedy some other inconveniences. 



The late monsoon afforded a strong instance of the inconvenience aris- 

 ing from the coming down of the rivers, on account of the want of a 

 proper embouchure to discharge the great accumulation of water occa- 

 sioned by the land floods ; I have therefore formed the second design, 

 which I conceive may not only afford a sufficient remedy for it, but render 

 unnecessary the labour now ineffectually bestowed in opening the Bar* 

 and also introduce a more extensive water communication through the 

 various parts of the town. 



The comparative scale at the foot of the plan No. 2, exhibits on either 

 side of a vertical line, the different heights to which the waters of the sea 

 and those of the river occasionally rise, which furnishes the chief data 

 upon which the plan is founded. There is, however, this difference 

 between them, that whereas one, that of the sea, is actuated daily; the 

 other, that of the river, seldom rises more than once a year, and that 

 but for a few days together. 



But notwithstanding this variation in the different levels of waters 

 occasionally communicating with each other, from the extraordinary 

 peculiarity of this communication being cut off by the effect of the surf 

 and southerly winds united, which in a short time choak up the Bar again; 

 the labour of opening it is constantly with every season to be repeated, 

 and no advantages gained from the different, elevations to which these 

 waters alternately rise. 



It is evident that were it possible to remedy this extraordinary effect, 

 and try every means to keep an open and clear communication between 

 the river and the sea, it would most probably afford an easy passage for 

 boats into the river, whereby all the dangers and delays of the surf might 

 be entirely removed. 



As the action of the surf in the south-west monsoon seems to be the 

 principal agent in throwing up the Bar across the mouth of the river, 

 so, in order to overcome this tendency and preserve a passage open, the 

 first step necessary seems to be, to cut off the power of the surf by 

 erecting a barrier sufficiently solid to resist its effects, and then by taking 



