374 
Agriculture of the Scilhj Isles. 
Before concluding, the benefits whicli have accrued to the 
village of Northmoor, which is situate in the very heart of the 
quondam flooded district, ought to be noticed. During the winter 
season this village was almost unapproachable, the roads in many 
places being under water, and the streams through Avhich the 
roads passed by means of fords being so much swollen that it was 
often dangerous to go through them. The houses in the village 
were also damp and unhealthy. Since the formation of this em- 
bankment and cutting, and the keeping back the floods of the 
Windrush and the Thames, the appearance of the village has 
completely changed. Access to it is easy at all times of the 
year ; there is not the mass of water to block up the outfall of 
the streams and ditches as there used to be, the cutting along the 
embankment providing a most excellent outfall for it. 
In conclusion, I may say that this embankment is a benefit to 
all interested in the district it protects from floods ; to the land- 
owners, from the value of the land being materially increased 
thereby ; to the occupiers of the land, from its having been the 
means of enabling them to grow good crops of cereals and 
roots, where before was barely a pasturage for a few cattle ; and. 
to the labourers and all others dwelling in the district, from their 
homes having been made more dry and healthy. The benefits, 
too, which accrue to the country at large, when any of its poor 
and almost unproductive grass lands are brought into a high 
state of cultivation, and thereby increase the national resources, 
must not be overlooked. 
XX. — Tlte Agriculture of the Scilb/ Isles. By Lawrence Scott, 
M.R.A.C, and Harry Rivington, F.G.S. 
Physical Features, 
Geography. — The Scilly Islands, situated in latitude 49^ 40' N., 
and longitude 6° 20' W., are due west of the Lizard, and from 
twenty-seven to thirty miles W.S.W. of the Land's End. They 
consist of six principal islands, eleven smaller ones (varying in 
size from 10 to 80 acres), and an immense number of apparent 
or sunken rocks.* Some authors assign a definite number to 
the rocks, but their statements differ widely, one reckoning " 300 
isles, islets, and rocks," and another, writing only five years later, 
speaking of the whole group as consisting of 145 rocks. 
The names and acreages of the six principal islands, together 
with the population in 1851 and 1861, are represented in the 
following table : — 
* Woodley on the Scilly Isles (1822). 
