Preston is a busy town and port in the county of Lancashire, situated on the river Ribble, about seventeen miles from the sea. The navigation of the port has hitherto been confined to coasting vessels drawing about 14 feet of water. The amount of shipping entering the port has been under 30,000 tons a year. The Ribble rises in the West Riding of Yorkshire, at the east foot of Whernside, and arrives at Preston after a course of fifty-seven miles. With its tributaries it drains about 800 square miles of land, a great part of which is moorland. The annual rainfall over this district averages about 37 inches. Below Preston, the channel of the river opens out into a broad sandy estuary, four or five miles in width, the whole of which is covered at high water of spring tides, and the greater part of which is dry at low water. The course of the river, after it leaves the trained portion, is along the northern shore of this estuary to Lytham, whence the main navigable channel, called “The Gut,” bends in a south-westerly direction between the Salt-house and the Horse-shoe banks to the Irish Sea. The width of the estuary between the two forelands on the coast, Stanner Point on the north, and Southport on the south, is five miles. The sands extend four miles seaward beyond this line, and are uncovered at low water. The depth at low water spring tides on the bar, or the portion of the navigable channel with deep water, is four feet. Beyond this the depth seawards rapidly increases, from 20 feet immediately beyond, till, at the Nelson buoy—which is two miles beyond the bar, and the first buoy belonging to the Ribble navigation—the depth is six fathoms. The depth above the bar along the Gut channel, which is rather tortuous and narrow, being shown on the Admiralty chart as less than a quarter of a mile wide, varies from 4 to 24 feet. This channel is buoyed out with eight buoys, which are shifted as the channel varies. There are three other channels between Lytham and the sea, called, respectively, the South Channel, the Penfold, and the North Channel. These are more or less navigable; but the Gut is the main sea-fairway. From Lytham a shallow channel runs near the shore for about a mile to “The Dock,” where ships can lie at anchor. Thence it winds towards the Wage through the sands. This channel is continually shifting its course, owing to gales and freshets. From this point the river has been trained by rubble-stone training walls, put in about thirty-four years ago, which continue for seven miles up to Preston. These walls rise seven feet above low water, and are 300 feet apart at the top. Spring-tides rise 24 feet at the bar, and neaps 17 feet, and at Preston the rise is 10 feet and 4 feet 6 inches. The project of constructing a dock at Preston has been agitated for some years, and has been strongly advocated by Mr. Garlick, M.I.C.E., who was the engineer to the Navigation Commissioners. It was considered that by providing deep-water