64 On reclaiming Marsh Latid. 



fore these cribbing planks can be safely removed, there 

 must be another set of cribbing plank put down, and the 

 four rows of long ties piled all in the same manner as the 

 former. Thus we continue to draw up these cribbings 

 next to the bank, and advance the new cribbings 

 as the work progresses, until the breach be completed. 

 To accomplish such work to the best advantage, substan- 

 tial wheeling plank should be laid over the middle row 

 of caps, for the men to run their barrows on in safety ; 

 and when it is necessary to bring their mud from a greater 

 distance than about eighty feet, another gang way should 

 be formed, that all the loaders (or as they are sometimes . 

 called shovel-men) may be kept constantly at work. 

 There should be two sets of wheelers for one set of sho- 

 vel-men : one set of the former to wheel up the mud half 

 way to the dam, and there to meet the other set returning 

 %vith their empty barrows. At this place they exchange 

 their barrows ; those who came up loaded, return with 

 their empty barrows to be again filled, while the others 

 turning about, proceed to discharge their loads in the 

 breach. That all parts of the work might advance 

 aright, there should also be two large flat-bottom boats, 

 (scows) which could be very advantageously employed : 

 the one within the dam in the creek, and the other on the 

 outside, with hands sufficient to work them. Their busi- 

 ness should be to bring mud from the sides of the creek, 

 and discharge their loads into the two outer spaces, viz. the 

 footings, by throwing the mud with force against the pil- 

 ings of the two inner rows. During all the time that the 

 labourers are employed, a few trusty men should be sta- 

 tioned in the mud at the dam, and should be ordered to 

 pack every wheelbarrow load as it is delivered. Should 

 the mud happen to be soft and incline to slip, it will then 

 be necessary to spread over it occasionally very thin layers 

 of fine brush, or, what is equally proper, three-square 



