Protecting River-Sides. 



I AM glad to see this subject iutvoduced, as on mauy estates and 

 even this one, the protection of river sides forms a heavy item in the 

 shape of expenditure, and it may not be out of place for me to give 

 my own experience in such matters. This river, as it is called in 

 Gaelic the "Black Water," is subject at all times to overflow its 

 banks, often doing great damage. It is nothing uncommon after a 

 spate to see haycocks, sheep, and logs of timber sweeping past with 

 irresistible force and carried out to sea ; boats sometimes torn from 

 their moorings, and left high and dry, and many other things swept 

 completely away by the river overflowing its banks. Such was the 

 scene witnessed not many days ago, and it may be easily imagined 

 tliat considerable damage was done. True, very considerable damage 

 was done, and the nature of the injury was perfectly well understood, 

 but the question at issue was, "What was the best cure ? having had 

 a staff of men employed piling the banks all summer, embracing 

 every opportunity to get on with the work when the water was low 

 enough to allow it. At the place where the works have been going 

 on the water is from 8 to 10 feet deep, the bed of the river in some 

 places being gravel, in others stiff tenacious clay. The piles used for 

 the work were alder, and were driven into the bank with a heavy 

 mallet, giving them a gentle slope back from the water: a large pointed 

 crowbar was employed to bore a hole for the point of the pile to 

 prevent it splitting. This finished, a rail of wood was nailed along 

 the piles about 3 in. from the top, also when the river subsided to 

 about its lowest another rail of the same dimensions was securely 

 nailed at the level of the water. After this we had rough heather 

 securely packed in at the back of the piles down to the very bottom, 

 and rising to near the surface. This done, the earth was then firmly 

 packed in, the banks all smoothed off with as much slope as could be 

 got with safety, and the whole finished over with a tough old turf, or 

 divot. 



If sown with grass seeds within water-mark, and the grass has not 

 had time to form a greensward, the first spate carries everything 

 away with it, and even, although a sward has been formed, there is 

 not that touglmess in it there is in a good dlcot, consequently the 



