55 
the ships are of a much larger class, requiring a greater depth 
of water both in the docks and channels. If, therefore, the 
Act of Parliament above alluded to applies to the docks made 
and deepened since its passing in 1825, to those docks now 
in progress, and to all that may be hereafter be constructed^ 
the amount of clay and mud thrown into the river will be 
enormous, endangering the navigation at the very time, and 
in proportion as the increase both in size and number of 
the ships requires the channel to be kept as deep and clear 
of deposit as possible.’ In consequence of this report the 
practice of discharging mud boats on the flood tide was 
abandoned, and they have since been discharged during the 
first quarter of ebb. That the views then adopted by Ad- 
miral Evans were right is shown by the present condition 
of the main or Queen entrance channels into Liverpool, 
which are now only about seven to eight feet on the bar at 
low water spring tides, instead of about twelve feet, so that 
small tug boats cannot now get in and out where compara- 
tively large steamers used to be able to pass. An illustration 
of this fact was afforded the other day, when one of the Isle 
of Man boats had to wait some time before she could cross 
the bar. With regard to Rock Channel, the depth of water 
on the bar is now only 18 inches at low water spring tides. 
It may be thought that in going back to Admiral Evans’s 
report for 1843 we have travelled out of our way to manu- 
facture arguments against the present system of depositing 
mud in the Mersey; but if we return to the Admiral’s 
report for 1872, we find the views of 1843 confirmed.” 
No doubt the throwing in of about 2000 tons of mud into 
the Mersey near Liverpool every working day is a thing 
which ought not to be allowed by the conservator of that 
river, but it is highly probable that this is only one of the 
causes of the decreased depth of water over the bar of the 
Queen’s channel. It is now pretty well known that encroach- 
ments and embankments on estuaries and river courses 
