0?i reclaimifig Marsh Land. 57 



should be suspended until the sluice is bedded and finish- 

 ed. The mud on each side of the intended bed, should 

 be removed a reasonable distance, lest, when piling for 

 the sluice, any sudden jar might cause the sides to cave 

 in, and thus fill up the bed. After the bed is dug, four 

 stakes having lines fastened to them are to be drawn 

 taught, and stuck into the mud exactly on the bottom, 

 where the sluice is to be laid, but within the breadth of 

 the sluice by about two inches ; for example, should the 

 sluice be four feet wide, then set down those stakes at 

 the distance of three feet nine or ten incheb apart. In 

 the meantime some person should be in readiness uith 

 the pilings. These pilings are made from inch boards 

 (no matter of what wood, for in the mud ihcy never rot) 

 sawed off, to the length of about three feet, and are to be 

 sharpened ; this is done by a person cutting and sloping 

 away both sides of one end of the board alike, and by 

 cutting off three or four inches of one of the corner^, at an 

 angle of about forty degrees. Tliese pilings being set by 

 the lines, are driven down to a level w ith the bottom by 

 a maul or tip, beginning at one end and so proceeding on, 

 until l)oth sides are completed, and by crossing the bed 

 in several places and immediately under the in and out 

 end of the sluice, always remembering^ that the piling be 

 put down with that edge having the point cut oiF furthest 

 from the board last driven ; so that in forcing it down, by 

 the time it will be brought to a level with the one pre- 

 ceding, it will be drawn perfectly tight against it. Should 

 the sluice be made of two or three funnels or divisions, 

 you must drive as many rows of pilings as there are di- 

 visions of plank. If the mud is good where the sluice is 

 laid, by piling in this manner, it can never settle, and no 

 muskrat or mink, can ever undermine it. The piling 

 lengthways and across being completed, and the lines re- 

 moved, four poles eight or ten feet long, are to be set 



