Warping. 107 



to warp. The soil is peat and the level of the land is between 

 high and low water in the river. 



The first point to consider is the direction of the warping 

 drain which is to carry the water on to the land. When this has 

 been fixed, the right to make this drain must be obtained. After 

 these preliminaries the warping drain can be cut. It consists 

 of a large dyke from forty to fifty feet wide, but the width 

 necessarily -epends on the area of the land to be flooded. The 

 bottom of the drain must be at the same level as the low water 

 level of the river. The excavations from this drain are thrown 

 up on either side to form banks, and these must be two feet 

 above the level to be attained by the highest tide that will be 

 admitted. A sluice is built at the mouth of the drain, con- 

 structed of masonry and provided with one or two pairs of 

 large oak doors or flood gates. This sluice will consist of two 

 arched tunnels of heavy stone work, twelve or fifteen feet wide, 

 about the fame length, and ten feet high. These tunnels will 

 be side by side in the drain about thirty feet from the river. 

 The floor of this sluice must be of heavy timber, securely 

 fastened down, and level with the bottom of the river. The 

 floor is continued ten feet towards the river and also ten feet 

 back into the drain. Upon the outside of the river end of each 

 of these tunnels a pair of heavy oak doors are hung, hinged to 

 the sides of the tunnel, and meeting and pressing against each 

 other in such a manner that the heavier the pressure of the 

 river water upon them the closer will they fit ; and they should 

 be so accurately made and hung that when closed no matter 

 what height the river may be no water can pass through. 



Whilst these operations at the head of the drain are being 

 carried out the land to be flooded is under pi-eparation. The 

 whole area is surrounded by a bank the same height as the 

 banks of the drain already made. The material for the bank 

 is obtained from a channel, dug inside, round the whole area to 

 be warped. The warping drain is continued right into the area 

 and connected with the outside channel, whilst numerous 

 minor cuts are also made across the land. 



The Flooding. 



When all is ready the flood gates are fastened open 

 at low water, and as the tide rises the water rushes into 

 the warping drain. The width of this drain being com- 

 paratively small and the tide rising rapidly in the river, 

 we find a large volume of muddy water rushing at high 

 velocity along the warping drain on to the land prepared 

 for it. As a result the water soon reaches the far side 

 of the area and then commences to distribute itself over 

 the whole surface l)y means of the small cross cuts. Tn 



