My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org
My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org
'70 MY LIFEAt the same time the canal had been improved atgreat cost to enable it to carry the increased tradethat had been caused by the rapid growth of Londonand the prosperity of agriculture during the earlyportion of the nineteenth century. About thirtymiles further on the watershed between the riverbasinsof the Ouse and Severn had to be crossed, adistrict of small rainfall and scanty streams, fromwhich the whole supply of the canal, both for its locksas well as for evaporation and leakage, had to bedrawn. Whenever there was a deficiency of waterhere to float the barges and fill the locks, trafific waschecked till the canal filled again ; and this hadbecome so serious that, for a considerable portion ofthe canal, it had been found necessary to erect steam-engines to pump up the water at every lock from thelower to the higher level. Sometimes there were two,three, or more locks close together, and in these casesa more powerful engine was erected to pump thewater the greater height. Up to this time I hadnever seen a steam-engine, and therefore took thegreatest interest in examining these both at rest andat work. They had been erected by the celebratedfirm of Boulton and Watt, and were all of the lowpressuretype then in use, with large cylinders, overheadbeam, and parallel motion, but each one havingitsspecial features, the purport of which was explainedto me by my brother, and gave me my first insightinto some of the more important applications of thesciences of mechanics and physics.Of course at that time nobody foresaw the rapiddevelopment of railways all over the country, orimagined that they could ever compete with canalsin carrying heavy goods. Yet within two years afterthe completion of the lineto Birmingham, the traffic
SURVEYING IN BEDFORDSHIRE 71of the canal had decreased to 1,000,000 tons, while itwas 1,100,000 tons in 1837. Afterwards it beganslowly to rise again, and had reached 1,627,000 tonsin 1900, an exceedingly small increase as comparedwith that of the railway. And this increase is whollydue to local traffic between places adjacent to thecanal.In the northern part of the parish, which extendednearly to the village of Great Brickhill, were somecurious dry valleys with flat bottoms, and sides clothedwith fir woods, a kind of country I had not yet seen,and which impressed me as showing some connectionbetween the geological formation of the country andits physical features, though it was many years laterwhen, by reading Lyell'sfirst understood why it should be so." Principles of Geology," IAnother interestingfeature of the place, of which no one then saw thesignificance, was a large mass of hard conglomeraterock, or pudding-stone, which lay in the centre of thespot where the three roads met in front of the housewhere we lodged. It was roughly about a yard indiameter and about the same height, and had probablyat some remote period determined the position of thevillage and the meeting-point of the three roads.Being a kind of rock quite different from any foundin that part of England, it was probably associatedwith some legend in early time, but it is in all probabilitya relic of the Ice Age, and was brought by theglacier or ice-sheet that at one time extended overall midland England as far as the Thames valley.But at this time not a single British geologist knewanything about a glacial epoch, it being two yearslater, in 1840, when Louis Agassiz showed Dr.Buckland such striking indications of ice-action inScotland as to convince him of the reality of such
- Page 44 and 45: 22 MY LIFEwe often saw him standing
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SURVEYING IN BEDFORDSHIRE 71<strong>of</strong> the canal had decreased to 1,000,000 tons, while itwas 1,100,000 tons in 1837. Afterwards it beganslowly to rise again, <strong>and</strong> had reached 1,627,000 tonsin 1900, an exceedingly small increase as comparedwith that <strong>of</strong> the railway. And this increase is whollydue to local traffic between places adjacent to thecanal.In the northern part <strong>of</strong> the parish, which extendednearly to the village <strong>of</strong> Great Brickhill, were somecurious dry valleys with flat bottoms, <strong>and</strong> sides clothedwith fir woods, a kind <strong>of</strong> country I had not yet seen,<strong>and</strong> which impressed me as showing some connectionbetween the geological formation <strong>of</strong> the country <strong>and</strong>its physical features, though it was many years laterwhen, by reading Lyell'sfirst understood why it should be so." Principles <strong>of</strong> Geology," IAnother interestingfeature <strong>of</strong> the place, <strong>of</strong> which no one then saw thesignificance, was a large mass <strong>of</strong> hard conglomeraterock, or pudding-stone, which lay in the centre <strong>of</strong> thespot where the three roads met in front <strong>of</strong> the housewhere we lodged. It was roughly about a yard indiameter <strong>and</strong> about the same height, <strong>and</strong> had probablyat some remote period determined the position <strong>of</strong> thevillage <strong>and</strong> the meeting-point <strong>of</strong> the three roads.Being a kind <strong>of</strong> rock quite different from any foundin that part <strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong>, it was probably associatedwith some legend in early time, but it is in all probabilitya relic <strong>of</strong> the Ice Age, <strong>and</strong> was brought by theglacier or ice-sheet that at one time extended overall midl<strong>and</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong> as far as the Thames valley.But at this time not a single British geologist knewanything about a glacial epoch, it being two yearslater, in 1840, when Louis Agassiz showed Dr.Buckl<strong>and</strong> such striking indications <strong>of</strong> ice-action inScotl<strong>and</strong> as to convince him <strong>of</strong> the reality <strong>of</strong> such
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