Captain Culver, RN., F.R.S., is a very unpleasant person. He
was requested by the Conservators of the Thames to report upon the changes in the river since the completion of the new .drainage works, and his Report is not nice reading. He says the works are silting up the river with sewage. The flood tide brings the sewage back from the outfalls, and " a vast mass of polluted water, eight miles long, 750 yards wide, and 4} feet deep,
• charged with offensive matter, both fluid and solid, moves up and down the channel four times daily between Gravesend and near to Blackwall, dropping its solid burden Wherever a reduction in the rate of the current or still water may favour deposit." The metropolitan sewage has, in fact, "reproduced in mid-Thames a 'nuisance felt to be unbearable in the upper portion of the river," and besides, decreases the depth of water, as is perceptibly the -case in Woolwich Reach.
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