to the Firft Volume, 605

Jand thus occupied. Where no gravel can be procured, the new floped bank fhould be immediately covered with well fwarded turf, which thould be beaten down as hard as poffible, either by the batk of the fpade or with wooden mallets. If this be done in the beginning of fummer, and willows be planted the following autumn,

the improvement may be effeCiual and permanent. In order to prevent the effects'

of a current againfi a particular part of the bank, a fence or bulwark of ftone in the front of the place may be neceflary; the beft way of doing which is, to drop the ftones in a carelefs manner, but fo as they may lie clofe together on the floped bank, care being taken to lay them all the way from the bed of the river, till confiderably beyond where the river flows in common. In level, or nearly level diftricts, all that is neceflary is to fecure full{cope for the rivers to overflow their ufual bounds without interruption: when that is fecured by either of the methods before mentioned, floods, unlefs very violent, feldom do any material damage to the banks of rivers in fuch fituations. It is in many cafes extremely difficult to guard rapid running rivers in fuch a manner as to prevent part of the banks from being carried away by inundations. Neither floping the banks nor{trong bul- warks made of ftone would here be effectual; the method of filling a fort of large

open bafkets, placed along the bottom of the banks, with fiones, has been found:

fuccefsful, and, as thefe bafkets may be made to contain two or three tons of fiones,. it can only be on few occafions, and in very particular fituations, that they can be difplaced or carried away. Much damage is often done to the banks of rivers in level diftricts, efpecially if the banks be perpendicular and of a confiderable

height, by allowing the land-floods to fall over them into the rivers. As the water

from the furrows approaches the bank it is frequently{topped in the furrow of the

_head-ridge, which becomes for a time a kind of refervoir; the confequence of

which is, that a confiderable proportion. of the water finks and filtrates through the earth, which, being thus foftened and fwelled, is more eafily undermined and carried. offby the river. Sometimes little cuts or openings are made from the furrows acrofs. the head-ridge for the purpofe of conducting the rain-water into. the rivers, the confequences. of which are equally bad; as at every one of thefe cuts or openings a little creek is formed, in confequence of the bank having been more: foftened, and by that means having become a more eafy prey to the rivers when in: flood. To prevent thefe evils, it is neceflary, befides{loping the banks, to. devote a part of the lands adjoining, to the breadth of twenty or thirty yards, either: to pafturage, or the growth of trees; and to forma drain at a proper diftance from, and parallel to, the bank for the purpofe of collecting and carrying eff the

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