304 ON LANDSLIPS. 



which to shear off the tough and stringy green beech piles ? 

 Afterthought, however, convinced me that this power was 

 given to it by the enormous weight of the superincum- 

 bent load, about 200 tons upon each pile. I afterwards had 

 an opportunity of setting this matter at rest by drawing a 

 good many of the piles, when I found that they had been 

 torn sheer across at the " slipping surface,'" but leaving a 

 ragged, fibrous fracture, showing the toughness of the 

 timber. 



Piles having been thus proved to be of no avail, Brunei 

 allowed the contractor to try a plan of his, by making fire 

 holes in an arched form with flues between the holes, filling 

 them with v\^ood and coal, and burning the clay, thinking to 

 get the strength of the arch to sustain the slip ; but though 

 the holes were 8 or 9 feet deep in the bank, his arch was 

 altogether too superficial, and the whole rode away upon the 

 slip together, and did no good. Some other schemes were 

 tried or suggested, which are not now worth alluding to 

 further. 



In the meantime I had been thinking over another scheme, 

 which I put before Brunei on the occasion of his next visit, 

 and which he at once consented to let me try. 



Two miles to the north of this big bank we had a short 

 rock-cutting in the coral rag formation, very suitable for my 

 purpose, and we had a new 100-yard slip in the bank, just 

 started and well under way, on which to try it. My plan was : 

 To dig some holes, each 6 feet square and 6 feet apart, in 

 the " cess " — close up to the slope of the bank ; to carry them 

 down to a depth of a foot or 18 inches below the '' slipping 

 surface " into the unmoved ground below, and then to fill 

 these holes with the rough stone from the coral rag. But, as 

 it was of the greatest importance to get these holes excavated 

 and then filled with stone as rapidly as possible, — for the 



