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the furface. Along the coaft of Lincolnlhire, Cumberland, Weit-moreland, Lancaihire, and Cornwall, immenfe trafts of this kind ofredeemable land may be feen, which might all be reclaimed by-warping.
In 1810, I examined a vast extent of these lands on the WestCoast of England. To enter into a minute description of allthe situations that may be pointed out there, would be tedioussuffice it only to take notice of Bolton sands in Lancashire . Theyare calculated to contain upwards of 30,000 acres; they lie, too,along the course of a river, which runs over a bed of rich marland limestone in its course.- They are not far below the level ofspring tides : the surface is covered with sea sand; the subsoil isstill moss. In some places, the quantity of sand deposited onthis subsoil, is so small, as to- render the surface so soft, that itis impassable. Men and horses, and carts and carriages, havebeen often swallowed up, and sunk to rise no more, in attemptingto pass over it at low water. The stage coach, which runs dailyover these sands, is therefore furnished with a guide on horse-back ; he is employed to examine the sands at every tide, and toride before the coach, to point out a secuve passage, lest theyshould all sink. He showed to me a spot where a horse and carthad sunk the very day before ; the driver alone, with great diffi-culty, escaped from being swallowed up.
If this immense tract were banked in from the ocean, and if apart of the mossy subsoil were dug up and mixed with the sand,and the whole warped in the manner already described, it might-soon become one of the richest, ar.d most extensive plains ofthat fertile county.
The late Mr Wilkinson of Castlehead, who had already re-claimed upwards of 500 acres of absolutely barren moss in thevicinity, offered 50,000 1 . Sterling, as his shave of the expenseof banking these sands. But he is gone :—and probably this pa-triotic plan may be dropped for ages. In the Agricultural Re-port of that county, published in 1795, it is observed, that for.150 or 200,000/. about 38,000 acres might be reclaimed fromthe dominion of the deep in that district. Though of no valuewhatever in its present state, the author adds, that it might soonbe worth 1,34-8,4-00/. Sterling.
There are other kinds of waste land that might be reclaimedby warping. Almost all the marine mosses along the Britishshores are of this description. As they all contain a proportionof sea salt, it is clear, that at one period, they must have beenbelow the level of spring tide, or overflowed by the ocean ; and,though they are now gorged up and swollen by the annual grow thof aquatic plants, and the vast proportion of water they contain,yet many of them might, at a small expense, be reduced to a-level so low-, as to be warped during spring tides.
The proportion of water which enters into the composition of