The whole of the new cuts were easily navigable, being from 140 to 200 feet wide at bottom, whereas the old outlets had been variable and were often choked with shifting sand. The district was thus effectually opened up for navigation, and a convenient transit afforded for coals and other articles of consumption. Wisbeach became accessible to vessels of much larger burden, and in the course of a few years after the construction of the Nene Outfall, the trade of the port had more than doubled. Mr. Telford himself, towards the close of his life, spoke with natural pride of the improvements which he had thus been in so great a measure instrumental in carrying out, and which had so materially promoted the comfort, prosperity, and welfare of a very extensive district.*[3] We may mention, as a remarkable effect of the opening of the new outfall, that in a few hours the lowering of the waters was felt throughout the whole of the Fen level. The sluggish and stagnant drains, cuts, and leams in far distant places, began actually to flow; and the sensation created was such, that at Thorney, near Peterborough, some fifteen miles from the sea, the intelligence penetrated even to the congregation then sitting in church--for it was Sunday morning--that "the waters were running!" when immediately the whole flocked out, parson and all, to see the great sight, and acknowledge the blessings of science. A humble Fen poet of the last century thus quaintly predicted the moral results likely to arise from the improved drainage of his native district:- "With a change of elements suddenly There shall a change of men and manners be; Hearts thick and tough as hides shall feel remorse, And souls of sedge shall understand discourse; New hands shall learn to work, forget to steal, New legs shall go to church, new knees to kneel." The prophecy has indeed been fulfilled. The barbarous race of Fen-men has disappeared before the skill of the engineer. As the land has been drained, the half-starved fowlers and fen-roamers have subsided into the ranks of steady industry--become farmers, traders, and labourers. The plough has passed over the bed of Holland Fen, and the agriculturist reaps his increase more than a hundred fold.. Wide watery wastes, formerly abounding in fish, are now covered with waving crops of corn every summer. Sheep graze on the dry bottom of Whittlesea Mere, and kine low where not many years since the silence of the waste was only disturbed by the croaking of frogs and the screaming of wild fowl. All this has been the result of the science of the engineer, the enterprise of the landowner, and the industry of our peaceful army of skilled labourers.*[4] Footnotes for Chapter XIII. *[1] Telford's Life, p261