Another case of the same kind occurs in his report on the harbour of North Berwick, made in 1812:--
“Before closing this report it may be noticed that North Berwick has considerable advantages, which if acted upon would infallibly lead to the rapid improvement of the town and neighbourhood. Situated upon an extensive flat which skirts along the high land of North Berwick Law, on a beautiful sandy bay, which is intersected by the street leading to the harbour, few towns will more easily admit of elegant extension or are better calculated for becoming a sea-bathing retreat.”
It has now the well-known reputation of being the best frequented watering place on the east coast of Scotland.
In the report, of 1814, on Dundee we find the following remarks on tidal scour:--
“To put this matter in a clearer point of view, let us see what nature does upon the great scale, as for example in the extensive basin forming the Firth of Tay. We there find that in consequence of the rapidity of the current at the narrow passage in the neighbourhood of Broughty Castle, which may be viewed as the _scouring aperture_ of the basin of the Tay, the water is from forty to eighty feet in depth, and moves with a velocity which carries a great quantity of sandy particles along with it. But no sooner are the waters of this current allowed to spread and cover the basin of the Tay, than the velocity ceases, and the foreign matters fall to the bottom and form the various sandbanks which appear at low water. In a similar way the deposition of silt and earthy particles brought down the river in speats is accounted for. Now, this view of the case is equally applicable to the harbour of Dundee, for so long as the water preserves the velocity it acquires in the _scouring apertures_ or arches in the quays, it carries all its foreign matters along with it; but the moment it is allowed to expand over the extent of the harbour the deposition of these earthy particles begins. And in every case the well-known law in hydraulics holds good, that the _scouring effect_ of a fluid is in the ratio of the square of the velocity.”
The following observations made in 1807 on the action of the waves in unscrewing bolts, are interesting:--