434 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



the dam, it is obvious that the height of the banks 

 ehoiiUl be the same. 



I II this case, it is evident that without making the 

 back-drains a ab, immediately behind the embank- 

 ments, neither A nor B will have an outlet to carry 

 a'way the water collected iu the greater pari of the 

 land lying between the river and thehi>i:h ground. 

 The proprietor X has no dilficully in carrying 

 the back-drain into the river below the dam c, 

 whereby he will gain the whole fall of the dam; 

 but B has no other alternative than by means of 

 an aqueduct laid under the bed of the river at e e 

 to communicate with the back-drain a b, for the 

 situation of B is such, that it is impossible to car- 

 ry the water through the ground of the mill F to 

 the river below. 



As all the stuff' taken out of the new channel 

 has been previously deposited in the old water- 

 course, the stuff' taken out of the back drains is 

 generally sufficient to form the embankments. 



When the old water-course has many crooks, 

 the earth taken out of the new channel is seldom 

 enough to fill the whole of it without levelling 

 down the banks, which have become higher than 

 the adjacent ground, by the water depositing its 

 sediment in time of floods. Without filling the 

 old water-channel, the proprietors cannot derive 

 the advantage from the undertaking they other- 

 wise would; therefore, in operations of this nature, 

 1 have always Ihund it advisable to finish the 

 whole before the men leave the spot, otherwise it 

 too ollen happens (especially when the filling up 

 is left to the discretion of a tenant) that this part 

 of the work is finished in a very slight manner, 

 which is not only a considerable loss to the occu- 

 piers of the land, but throws discredit on all the 

 parties concerned. 



By shortening the length as well as straighten- 

 ing the course of the river, the force of the current 

 at the bend g will be considerably incre-ascd, and 

 the lands in that part will be thereby endangered; 

 therefore every precaution should be taken in se- 

 curing the slope, fcir should i'. once break, it will not 

 only "injure the lands of A, but, in a very short 

 time, a bay will be scooped out a little below on 

 the opposite lands of B, and, in the course of a 

 lew years, the river will gain its original serpen- 

 tine ibrm. However, although every precaution 

 has been used by the engineer, breaches will oc- 

 cur for one or two years, (especially il' the bottom 

 be graveJIy,) or until the bottom and sides become, 

 as it were, puddled by the action of the water. 



If the subject of improvement be of magnitude, 

 it is generally prudent to contract with a responsi- 

 ble person for the entire execution, a conditional 

 clause being inserted in the contract, binding the 

 undertaking party to uphold the works during a 

 specified number of years affer being completed. 

 For the want of these precauuons, large sums of 

 money are often thrown away. 



Havirin; shown the method and necessity of 

 i'traightening water-courses in situations where 



Fig. 3. 



the soil for the most part is deep, and the descent 

 of water generally sluggish, we will proceed, on 

 the same plan, to point out the method and neces^ 

 sity of protecting river banks in mountainous sit- 

 uations, where the soil is mostly gravel, and the 

 currents in general rapid. 



Protectiiig Bivcr Banks. 

 If we examine the valleys dispersed through 

 this country, we shall find thousands ol acres of 

 the richest soil torn to pieces by the impetuous' 

 floods — a devastation that is constantly going on, 

 fiir there are very few landed proprietors who pa}' 

 that attention to the ravaijes conmiitted on the 

 hauiili and other lands near their residences which 

 their interest seems to require, without once call- 

 ing in question the more remote lands. And if 

 we make an impartial survey of the havoc that is 

 constantly going on, we shall hardly ever find a 

 water-course but we shall be apt to think that ma- 

 ny districts have no owners, or that they have 

 more property than they know what to do wiih. 



If we inspect any one ol" the numerous water- 

 courses from the Tweed to John o' Groat's, we 

 shall find very lew instances of that attention hav- 

 ino- been paid" which the interest both of the pro- 

 prietors and the country seems to demand. In the 

 few attempts that have been made to remedy this 

 evil, we find most of them doing more injury than 

 any permanent good. 



The most extensive operations of this kind, and, 

 at the same time, carried on in a systematic man- 

 ner, are on the banks of the rivers Tay and Earn. 

 The banks of these rivers being very much expo- 

 sed to the rapid rise and fall of the water, which 

 mostly runs in a gravelly bed, the ravages com- 

 mitted by the currents are often very alarming, so 

 as to have caused some of the jiroprietors to j)ay 

 more attention to protecting them than is Ibund in 

 most other districts. 



His Grace the Duke of Athol and the Riffht 

 Honorable Lord Willouiihby de Eresby, in par- 

 ticular, have expended considerable sums of mon- 

 ey in protecting different portions of the banks of 

 the above-mentioned rivers, by means of sheath- 

 ing the aff'ected places with small stones — experi- 

 ence having shown that to employ any other meth- 

 od ivould be ineffectual. 



Those operations, with a k\v others on the 

 Earn and Almond, are perhaps the most perma- 

 nent in the country. 



The means generally employed by people not 

 acquainted with the currents of water for protect- 

 ing river banks are, f^jr the most part, piers or jut- 

 ments, run out at right angles into the beds of the 

 rivers, which, in most cases, increase the evil in- 

 stead of remedyinjr it. Another method is by 

 driving long stakes into the affected part of the 

 banks, as mentioned above in page 433, which 

 is equally if not more injurious than jellies. 

 I know instances where an ill-directed jetty or an 

 ill-judged piling has caused the river to take a con- 

 trary direction from what was intended. 



To guard against these mistakes, it is to be con- 1 be made evident and safe to be pursued: therefore, 

 eidftred that the patk is to be elestred as well as to I to simplify the subject and endeavor to render it 



