Trunk Drainage. 
m 
structcd ; and, by discharg;in<; the water G miles lower down the 
Ouse, an increased fall of 6 feet was gained. From want of 
funds the internal rivers could not be deepened and widened, as 
contemplated by the act; so in ]848 another act was obtained, 
giving power to raise another sum of 250,000/. by an average tax 
of 2.V. 3(1. an acre— 18,000 acres being excluded from taxation 
on the ground of already perfected drainage. The works are 
now completed, and the results — including the drainage of the 
celebrated Whittlesey Mere, and the reduction of the head against 
which the windmills and steam-engines had to throw — are incal- 
culable. Owners are elated at the rising price of their now 
secure lands, and farmers are really delighted with tlie certain 
prospect of improving soil and crops. For navigation purposes 
the water has to be kept at a certain depth in some of the drains 
(there are nearly 80 miles of navigation in the Middle Level) ; 
yet the admirable power given to the commissioners by their last 
act enables them to empty all the livers on the reasonable appre- 
hension of a Jiood — thus using their augmented depth and capacity 
as a reservoir, to prevent the possibility of overflow. The 
bottoms of the main canals and of the New Cut (alone upwards 
of 30 miles in length) have been levelled lower than low-water 
mark at sea, so that the Middle Level has now obtained a com- 
plete and admirable outlet for its waters. 
We ought not to refer to any similar improvements or projected 
designs, which have been described in this Journal at other times 
— as of the Ancholme in Lincolnshire, the cuts for draining the 
Carrs of Holderness in Yorkshire, the cutting of the Dutch River 
upon the orkshire Ouse, and improvement of the Trent and 
associated outfalls on the Humber (for which see the Report on 
Lincolnshire^, and again of the river Parret and its contiguous 
lowlands in Somersetshire (for which see Somersetshire Report\ 
or the improvements upon the bank of the Rihhle in Lanfcashire 
(see Martin Mere). But we cannot help reminding our readers 
of the principles of action exhibited in the Bye and Derivent 
District Drainage, so clearly and beautifully described by Mr. 
Henderson in the Journal, vol. XIV. The commissioners 
appointed by the Act of 1846 removed the obstructing water- 
wheels by substituting steam-engines corresponding to the power 
actually used by the mills,* and compensating the proprietors for 
inconvenience and the future additional expensiveness of the new 
power. The claims of a short canal navigation, two fisheries, 
* I do not advocate a Quixotic overturning of all -water-mills ; but, from the 
incalculable mischief they inflict in hundreds of wet valleys — one year's damage 
sometimes equalling the value of the mills— would gladly have them disposed of 
in this or some other way ; while, on the other haud, drainage may often be 
effected so as to augment their water-power. 
