BB On reclaiming Marsh Land, 



down by the four corners of the pilings as n.arks to di- 

 rect the workmen to the exact place into which ihty are 

 to float the sluice, and excite their attention to those parts 

 as it settles on the ebbing of the tide. When the siuice 

 shall have grounded on the pilings, one of the workmen 

 is to examine if it has rightly bedded, and if so, they will 

 then proceed and cover it up with the best mud, care 

 being now taken that a trusty packer be stationed there, 

 to pack every spit of mud as it is delivered to him. It 

 will now be necessary to lay two logs across and resting 

 upon the front and in-ends of the sluice, with their ends 

 bedded in the solid marsh, so as to prevent the mud as it 

 is packed on the sluice from slipping out, and to prevent 

 muskrats and other vermin from burrowing at or near its 

 sides. It will also be necessary to have inch boards saw- 

 ed to about six or eight feet in length, to i>e pointed and 

 sharpened in the same manner as directed for the pilings. 

 The labourer standing sideways to the log, with his face 

 towards the sluice, must set the edge of the board against 

 the sluice, and perpendicularly against the log with the 

 cut off the corner of the board next to himself; two other 

 men must have a two inch plank in readiness, and while 

 one of the ends rests on the mud, the other is placed by 

 the man attending the piling on the top of it, who are to 

 bold it steady while the two men walk on the plank until 

 they come over the piling, when, by raising and sinking 

 themselves they force it down with great facility. This 

 method is continued until these logs are piled from end 

 to end. It must now be obvious even to a person unac- 

 quainted with such business, that if a sluice be laid and 

 secured in this manner, nothing can injure it. For three 

 feet under low water mark, it cannot be undermined, 

 being, as it were, a tight board fence, and for more than 

 half tide up, an equally impenetrable barrier against any 

 kind of vermin. 



