142 
Drainage of Wkittlesea 31 ere. 
spared without injury, or where the taking it away is a positive 
advantajro by increasing materially the capacity of the main and 
other dykes. Indeed in determining the execution of the works 
connected with the portable railway, the enlargement of the main 
drain communicating with the engine was almost as important a 
consideration as fertilizing the bog. 
Owing to the very considerable subsidence of the level of the 
district* the drains had generally lost much of their original 
depth ; and in the main drain, where it passed through some of 
the lowest land in the old bed of the Mere, the water constantly 
supplied even in dry weather from the neighbouring bog, and in 
wet weather from the uplands as well, would, if not kept down 
by frequent pumping, rise more or less speedily up to and above 
the level of the adjoining fields. The depth and consequent 
capacity of the main drain being far too small, the engine, when 
set to work, in little more than two or three hours, completely 
exhausts the water ; while from the continuous supply in any but 
very dry weather, it becomes again in a few hours' time full to 
overflowing, and the engine has to be started again on its Sisi- 
phaean labour. 
This constant getting up and letting down of steam is a very 
uneconomical system, and a remedy, or, at any rate, a mitigation, 
suggested itself in the idea of greatly increasing the capacity of 
the main drain towards its lower end, which while furnishing by 
means of the railway a large supply of the Mere soil and of the 
gault, which, with a thin stratum of peat between, underlies the 
silty bed of the Mere, would create for the water descending from 
the more distant portion of the tract to be drained a kind of 
reservoir, where it might be stored up till the engine, after en- 
joying the lengthened intervals of repose thus afforded, should be 
again summoned to its duties. 
The combination of advantages offered by thus improving the 
main drain and utilising, as described, the rich material exca- 
vated from it were so palpable, that in no long time the idea was 
acted upon. 
It was at first proposed to carry the work out on a very con- 
siderable scale, with a view to the relief in working the engine 
to be gained by the enlarged main drain, and this would certainly 
have been a desirable object, but considerations, partly of a pecu- 
niary nature and partly connected with the difficulty of dealing 
with a large tract of land suddenly requiring cultivation, deter- 
* The extent of this subsidence has been gauged by means of piles, which at 
the commencement of the draining were driven in three of the lowest places in 
the bog into the underlying bed of gault, and were then cut off level with the sur- 
face. The tops of the piles when measured this summer were severally 4'9, 5'5, 
and 6'1 feet above the surface ; showing a subsidence of more than 9 inches a year 
since the draining has been completed. lu the same period, as has been said, the 
bed of the Mere has been lowered 3*6. 
