Un dcr-Drainage. 
573 
Xo. 7. 
Ta3"lor"s Smoke-consuming Fireplace. 
Meeting of Weeldtj Council, Wednesday, March 18th. Sir. Eaymond 
Baeker in the Chair. 
The Effect of Under Drainage on our Eiyers and Ahterial 
Channels. 
Mr. Bailey Denton said : I approach this subject -nith consider- 
able distrust in my powers of doing it justice, but determined to avoid 
everything that may partake of a controversial and doubtful character, 
and to confine myself to those facts which experience and observation 
assure me are soimd and deserving the attention of this Society. At 
the risk of repeating details which may be knovm to many, I feel it 
necessary for the elucidation of the matter to trace historically, in the 
fewest words possible, the progi-ess of under-di-ainage up to the 
present time ; and I will endeavour to do so in a manner rather to 
popularize than to confuse the matter by a multiplication of figures. 
It is necessary, however, to start with a knowledge of the magnitude 
of the subject ; and I should state that the result of close investigation 
has been to show that of the total extent of Great Britain, which is 
