HARBOURS OF REFUGE. Among the engineering works now in progress, in the, southern half of our island, the formation of j lharbours of refuge is not the least important. Numerous as are our ports, harbours, bays, and aestuaries, fitted to receive and despatch _ merchant shipping, there is a deficiency of harbours into which fleets could go to find shelter during a storm, and which would serve as general places of rendezvous for shipping.
Dover is in many respects one of the rnost im portant harbours on the coast : chiefly from its proximity to the continent. Yet is it only a tidal harbour, and has a shallow entrance even when the tide is in. Many a merchantman would be glad to avoid the perils of the Good. win Sands by a temporary anchorage in Dover Harbour, if it were better suited as a refuge. In 1814 a Government Commission was ap pointed to consider this subject, in relation to the forming of harbours of refuge for mer chant ships, and stations for war ships. The commissioners recommended extensive works at Dover, Portland, Seaford, and Harwich, with this object in view : to be proceeded with in the order here specified if all could not be advanced simultaneously. The reconunenda • tion was adopted, in its main features, by the Government. The harbour of refuge at Dover is being constructed; there is to be a harbour of 520 acres up to high water mark, or 380 acres at low water ; there is to be an entrance 700 feet wide on the south side, and another 150 feet wide on the east. The first work will
be a pier, running out from the point called Cheeseman's Head into seven fathoms water; it will protect the existing harbour during south-west gales, and will form the first link in the great wall of masonry which will en close the harbour. The eastern boundary of the harbour will be far beyond the limits of the present inhabited town of Dover ; the harbour will be a mile and a quarter from east to west, and three quarters of a mile from north to south. The existing contract for a part of the works was taken in July 1817 ; the works were commenced in October of the same year ; in 1848 the masonry was carried out 270 feet from the shore ; in 1849 this length was increased to 460 feet ; in 1850 the works were proceeding steadily, until a terrific storm on the night of the 7th of October, pro. duced very disastrous results on the masonry and scaffolding. Much of the subsequent labour has been in repair of this disaster.
The operations at Portland are briefly no ticed in another article. [DonsErsimm.] See also the article BREAKWATER.