Chap. XIII. Appendix.
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CHAPTER XIII.
Of Embankments.
By the Rev. Joseph Robertson.
A knowledge of the most effectual method of embankingland, is of essential importance in a general system of improve-ment. Embankments serve, in agriculture, a purpose similar towhat fortifications do in the art of war. They protect from in-vasion, and secure acquisitions. They not only enable the hus-bandman to defend the soil which he possesses from encroach-ment, and to prevent the fruits of his industry from being sweptunexpectedly from his grasp; but afford a mean of recoveringhorn the sea or rivers those lands which, for want of such aprotection, have in the progress of time been overwhelmed.
From the important advantages attending embankments, itwould seem just to conclude, that they could not be long neglect-ed in any country where agriculture had attracted a competentshare of attention ; more particularly, in one whose limited ex-tent makes the acquisition of productive land an object of primarymagnitude, the largeness of whose consumption renders any dis-appointment in its usual resources a cause of serious distress,and the intelligence of whose inhabitants ranks high in the esti-mation of the world. Yet, though such a country is Britain ,and such the character of its inhabitants, there is perhaps, in acomparative view, none in which the system of embanking hasbeen more overlooked.
In some places, indeed, exertions have been made in this waywhich mark a high degree of spirit and improvement. In York-shire, in Lincolnshire, in Cambridgeshire , in Cheshire, and inseveral other English districts, many hundred thousands of acreshave been recovered from the sea and rivers. On the westerncoast of Scotland and in the Hebridian isles, large acquisitionshave also been made. But still immense tracts, along the coastsa nd on sides of rivers and lakes, remain under the power of wa-ter. By the embankment of Lancaster Sands alone, the expenseof which, it has been estimated, would not exceed 150 , 0001 ., noless than sixty square miles of land might be gained. Andamong the Hebridian isles, it has been calculated, that above20,000 acres still remain to be reclaimed from the sea. It mustbe farther noticed, that there is scarcely a river in all the coun