I have made these sands and sand banks a long study. The late Rev. Nevison Loraine and I explored, in our canoes, every nook and cranny of the sand banks, and loved to bathe in the pools which formed at low water on the Burbo Bank; but this long experience of the riddle of the sands makes me afraid to dogmatise--nature so often rebels and does the very opposite to what you expect, and the teaching of the past tells us that she has been a good friend to Liverpool, and had better be left alone, only helping her, as by the Revetment, to concentrate her energy in the direction she wishes to go. A step in the same direction might be taken by closing the channel which has formed across the Burbo Bank. In my canoeing days this channel was a mere gutter, but now it is sufficiently large to abstract much water from the main stream. It has also often occurred to me that the old Formby Channel might also be diverted. It serves no useful purpose for navigation, and if the ebb tide which now flows through it could be turned into the present Formby Channel it would increase the scour; but experience may have demonstrated that the flood tide demands the old channel, and if so it has been wisely left open. I think it is probable that the flood tide making through this old Formby Channel strikes the main stream of the flood coming through the Crosby Channel and rebounds on to the Hightown and Hall Road shores, causing the erosion at these points. Great credit is due to the Conservators, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, and to Captain Mace, R.N., for the care and wisdom with which they have watched over the approaches to our port, and to the successful way they have handled our "Riddle of the Sands." LIVERPOOL: LEE AND NIGHTINGALE, PRINTERS, 15, NORTH JOHN STREET 1920. * * * * * * Transcriber's note: Archaic and variable spelling is preserved as printed. Minor punctuation errors have been corrected. Hyphenation has been made consistent. The title page shows a publication date of MIMXX. This appears to be a typographical error for MCMXX and has been corrected. The following changes have been made: Page 69--section title moved to follow italicised note. Page 83--pervailing amended to prevailing--... old-fashioned system of cartage still prevailing. The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page. Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph.