48 
HKOCEKDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 
1913 
points, leaving between them a long unbroken front.” If 
those drains which have been united were extended so as to 
come out with the one at Brough, there would be a grand 
illustration of "a long unbroken front ” extending back for 
nearly four miles to the canal, a condition which would fix 
the line of the new channel because all diverting influences 
would have been removed. Then the area which could be 
spared for reclamation would be shown. The convenience ol 
having the channel to touch the land on the north side opposite 
Read’s Island on the south at Whitton Ness must be obvious. 
Whether it could also be made to touch at Alkborough, Adling- 
fieet and Blacktoft may be left an open question, but groynes 
to increase the curve round Faxfleet, as shown by No. 3, 
4, and 5, seem to be desirable, in order that the Ouse may come 
into a line according with that of the Trent and of the channel 
directed towards the canal lock. 
The control of river channels has an important relation to 
the means for preventing coast erosion. Mr Embrey,^ always 
in sympathy with my work on rivers, has written an account 
of the satisfaction with which he saw an illustration of a point 
on which I had, as he knew, for many years insisted — that a 
stream at its outlet, whether it be a tributary falling into a 
river or a river falling into the sea, breaks the continuity of 
the bank, and, therefore, weakens it, thus increasing the 
tendency to break away, and so the liability to erosion. The 
river Blyth flows into the sea between Southwold and Dunwich. 
Both places and the intervening coast at Walberswick have 
been the scene of great destruction, but the authorities at 
Walberswick, with a view of improving the little harbour 
there and not for the purpose of preventing the erosion, ex- 
tended the river outwards into the sea between two piers. 
Thus the river which formerly flowed into a bay now flows 
into the more open sea, at a fixed point, from the end of a 
promontory, and the erosion has been stayed. Many years 
ago Sir Charles LyelB gave “ an illustration of the effect of 
promontories in protecting a line of low shore,” seen in 
Kincardineshire. Nature gives hints, the value of which is 
not recognized. 
1 “ Gloucester Journal,” 9th July, 1910. 
2 Principles of Geology, 12th ed., p. 512. 
