TREATMENT OF WATER. 355 



or six times as much. This they will do, not in the same 

 manner in all portions of the outline, sloping away with a 

 like gradual rise on both sides, for this would inevitably 

 produce tamencss and monotony, but in an irregular and 

 varied manner ; sometimes falling back gradually, some- 

 times starting up perpendicularly, and again overhanging 

 the bed of the lake itself 



All this can be easily effected while the excavations of 

 those portions of the bed which require deepening are 

 going on. And the better portions of the soil obtained 

 from the latter, will serve to raise the banks when they are 

 too low^ 



It is of but little consequence how roughly and 

 irregularly the projections, elevations, etc., of the banks 

 and outlines are at first made, so that some general form 

 and connexion is preserved. The danger lies on the other 

 side, viz. in producing a whole too tame and insipid ; for 

 we have found by experience, how difficult it is to make 

 the best workmen understand how to operate in any othei 

 way than in regular curves and straight lines. Besides, 

 newly moved earth, by settling and the influence of rains, 

 etc., tends, for some time, towards greater evenness and 

 equality of surface. 



JVIr. Price, in his unrivalled instructions for the creation 

 of pieces of artificial w^ater, has suggested another 

 excellent method by which the outlines and banks of lakes 

 may be varied. This is, first, by cutting down the banks, 

 in some places nearest the water, perpendicularly, and then 

 undermining them. This will produce a gradual variation 

 in some parts, which, falling to pieces, will produce new 

 and irregular accidental outlines. When, by the actior, 

 of rain and frost, added to that of the water itself, large 



