The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-13
THE THAMES ENHANCEMENT.
A Wonderful Work of Engineering, the
History of Which Is Forgotten.

| x
History of Which Is Forgotten.
As the seat of an extensive commerce
and internal trade, Roman London was as
eminent in antiquity as it is today. Its
monuments, the memorials of its great
ness, prove its prominence. One of these
if it is Roman work, which is uncertain,
IS the embankment of the river Thames.
This immense work is quite unequaled by
any of the labors of the modern English
engineers. For thirty seven miles along
the course of the stream lofty mounds
confine the river within fixed bounds and
| offer 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 lowlands 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. "The Thames from Rich
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.
ment to the Belgic traders, before the Ro-
man invasion; others even 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, and we have 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 as harshly as were the
savages of Hayti and Cuba by the Spanish
discoverers. 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 have
been only collection Of rude houses seated
on the rising ground above the river. 1t
was already 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
1t 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 I'D |
and down. They came, as Strabo tells US, |
from the mouths of the Loire and the |
the Seine and the Rhine.
Some were war ships, moved 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
larry the tin, lead, furs and the corn and !
,attle 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
when famine prevailed on the continent
how the general cultivation and prosperity
# the island. His 600 corn ships were
hastily built in the forest of Ardennes
nd possibly landed only on the southern
hore. If we allow them q burden of 100
ons each, they would equal the capacity
f at least six Umbrias or Etrurias, and !
he very names of our modern argosies re-
all the Italian teachers of our ancestors. -
.ugene Lawrence in Harpers.