Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-05-22
THE THAMES EMBANkMENT.
A Wonderful Work of Engineering, tho
History of Which Is Forgotten.

hlsAOFy Oh ulCh Is EOrSOCCens
AS the seat of an extensive m
and internal trade, Roman London was as
eminent in antiquity as it is today. Its
monuments. the memorials of its great
ness, prove it's prominence. One of these,
if it is Roman work, which is uncertain,
is the embanllmcnt of the river Thames.
This immense work is quite unequaled by
any of the lahors of the modern English
engineers. For thirty.scven miles. along
the course of the stream lofty mounds
contine the river within liked bounds and
offer u secure path to the navigator. On
each side the country spreads out far be-
low the ~embankment, and more than once
the waters have broken through, over
spread the lowlunds and left desolation
around them. The English had neglected
to repair and strengthen the banks of the
river, and were indebted to the skill of a
Dutch engineer for the restoration of the
Roman work. 1.-THE Thames from Richie
mond," says Mr.. Smiles, sis an artificial
river"
How many years of ceaseless toll, of
acute engineering skill and vast expense
were employed on this unequaled work no
history relates, no record even suggests.
Some authorities attribute the embank-
ment to the Belgic traders, before the Ro-
iii invasion: others aver to the monks
of the Middle Ages. But there is good
reason to suppose that the true authors of
the chief improvements on the Thames
were the Romans. Similar works on al-
most an equal scale exist In other parts of
England, ind we nave the complaint of
the subject Britons that they were wore
out and consumed in clearing the woods
and embanking the fens; not that the
hapless natives were ever treated by their
Roman taskmasters us harshly as were the
savages of Hayti and Cuba by the Spanish
discoveries. But they have outlived their
conqureror.
Before these ~embankments were made
the country below London was an i'm
mense fen, or marsh, over which the tide
flowed necessarily. The town could lave
been only a collection of rude houses seated
on the rising ground above the river. 1t
was already II seat of considerable trade
even before the Roman conquest. But the
genius and skill of the Roman engineers,
if the Romans built the embankment, gave
it those %unequaled facilities for traffic that
have secured its commercial supremacy in
every age. BY the embankment the
Thames was confined within bounds; many.
acres of land were added to the agricul-
tural domain, while along the fine high
way of the river a ceaseless procession of
vessels of every size and form moved up
and down. They came, as Strabo tells us,
from the mouths of the Loire and the
Garonne, the Seine and the Rhine.
Some were war ships, move usually by
oars, and distinguished by their sharp
beaks of iron, and their crews armed with
spears and shields; some were huge mer-
chant vessels, propelled by oars and sail,
laden with rich cargoes of eastern manu-
features, with the wines of Italy and the
artistic wares of Greece. Some sailing down
the river from the docks of London would
carry the tin, lead, furs and the corn and
cattle of the west to the ports of Gaul and
Spain.
Julian found in Britain the necessary
supplies for his perishing soldiers in Ger
many, and the immense stores he drew from
it when famine prevailed on the continent
show the general cultivation and prosperity
of the island. His 600 corn ships were
hastily built in the forest of A%rdennes,
and possibly landed only ON the southern
shore. If we allow them a burden of 100
tons each, they would equal the capacity
of at least six Umbrias or Etrurias, and
the very names of our modern urgosies re-
call the Italian tenchers of our ancestors
Eugene Lawrence in Harper's.