THE FLUME. 23 



driven down from eighteen inches to three or four feet 

 deep, or until they came to a solid bottom. They are 

 then nailed to the frame, and sawed off level with it, so 

 that the planking which forms the bottom of the flume 

 can be nailed smoothly over them. This is done to pre- 

 vent any animal from burrowing under the flume, and 

 letting the water off when the bog is flowed. These piles 

 are also driven laterally for a distance of ten or twelve 

 feet each side of the center, and also at the upper and 

 lower ends of the flume, and nailed to the frame work in 

 the same way, and are of use in holding the flume down 



Fig. 9. SIDE FRAME OP FLUME. 



in its place. If this work is not thoroughly well done, if 

 the flume is not properly constructed, and the piling 

 carefully attended to, musk rats or eels will be sure to go 

 through, the dam will be undermined and the water pos- 

 sibly let off in the winter, when the bog should be cov- 

 ered ; for, unless leaks are prevented, the vines may be 

 exposed to the weather in the winter, which would 

 damage them seriously, and entail^the loss of a crop the 

 following year. 



It is best to engage a man who is well acquainted with 

 work of this kind. Any one who has ever set a flume at 

 a mill would understand it. But I have known instances 

 where, owing to haste and carelessness in building the 

 flume, both dam and flume have been carried away in the 



