( 388  ) 
XVIII. — On  River  Conservancy,  and  the  Cause  and  Prevention  of 
Floods.  By  W.  H.  Wheeler,  Mem.  Inst.  C.E.,  Boston, 
Lincolnshire. 
The  frequent  floods  of  the  last  few  years  have  called  prominent 
attention  to  the  conservancy  of  the  rivers  of  this  country.  There 
is  scarcely  a river  valley  in  England  which  has  not  suffered,  and 
that  is  not  subject  to  inundations.  The  consequence  of  any 
prolonged  downfall  of  rain  is  the  submergence  of  hundreds  of 
square  miles  of  the  richest  land  in  this  country,  and  the  number 
and  frequency  of  these  floods  prove  them  to  be  an  evil  which 
demands  a remedy.  Those  whose  occupations  have  caused 
them  to  travel  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  England 
must  frequently  have  observed,  when  passing  through  the  river 
valleys  and  low-lying  districts,  the  whole  country,  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  see,  resembling  an  inland  sea, — the  hedges  often  entirely 
submerged,  houses  and  farm-buildings  standing  like  islands  in 
the  midst  of  the  watery  plain  ; all  communication  by  road 
stopped,  and  the  trains  frequently  with  difficulty  continuing 
their  way  through  water  reaching  nearly  up  to  the  carriage 
floors.  The  ordinary  sluggish  current  of  the  river  has  become 
a rapid  stream,  bearing  on  its  surface  cocks  of  hay  or  sheaves 
of  corn,  and  occasionally  the  bodies  of  dead  animals,  which  had 
been  swept  away  before  they  could  be  rescued  from  the  fields. 
This  picture  is  not  an  isolated  one,  but  such  occurrences  have 
been  frequent  and  widespread. 
The  damage  has  in  many  cases  been  most  disastrous,  not 
only  from  the  immediate  loss  of  crops,  but  from  the  injury  done 
to  the  land  by  soddening  it  and  rendering  it  difficult  to  work  in 
the  winter  season,  and  thus  disturbing  the  ordinary  course  of 
cropping  ; also  by  washing  out  the  manure  and  destroying  the 
condition  of  the  land.  In  summer  the  grass-land  is  rendered 
useless  by  the  deposit  of  earthy  matter  left  on  the  herbage,  and 
the  poached  condition  of  the  land  makes  it  unfit  for  the  stock  ; 
even  in  winter,  when  floods,  if  not  of  too  long  continuance,  may 
do  good  to  grass-land,  in  some  cases,  by  their  long  duration,  and 
in  others  by  the  deposit  of  ferruginous  and  siliceous  matter  con- 
tained in  suspension,  they  have  been  most  detrimental  to  the 
pastures.  By  frequent  and  long  continuous  flooding,  the  quality 
of  the  pasture  becomes  deteriorated,  the  fine  grasses  dying  oft’, 
and  being  succeeded  by  coarse  and  non-nutritious  herbage. 
These  losses  cannot  be  regarded  as  affecting  only  the  persons 
more  immediately  concerned,  but  become  a matter  of  national 
concern,  and  tell  seriously  on  the  food-producing  resources  ol 
the  country  and  the  national  wealth. 
