312 I'ORM NEW WATERED MEADS. [MAY. 



heavy rains, which come in large tracks of moun- 

 tain with an impetuosity incredible to those who 

 are used to a flat country. 



It would be right to begin, by choosing a place 

 where the declivity of the mountain is gentle, in 

 order that the space improved may be more useful 

 and obvious than it can be when very steep : going 

 up as high as the water can be conveniently com- 

 manded, make a wear of stone across a torrent, 

 just high enough to form a little bason among the 

 rocks, if there is none executed to your hand by 

 nature : in the Galties you find these at every ten 

 yards. At the spot where you have made, or found 

 one of these basons, open a trench from it, a spirit- 

 level shewing where to conduct it ; taking care to give 

 it no more fall than necessary to bring the water in a 

 very gentle current. The stream is to be made to 

 overflow out of this carrier-trench all the way it 

 runs : the trench must be made gradually smaller 

 to the end, as the body of water it brings lessens 

 as it advances. 



I would advise the proprietor to see the expe- 

 rience of a year or two, watering with no further 

 expence than I have described (which is evidently 

 too trifling to be an object). If he find the effect 

 great, as in all probability he will, I should then 

 advise his levelling the spaces over which he throws 

 the water, to that exactness which is necessary for 

 mowing ground : this, in many mountains, is the 

 i expensive part of the business ; for rains 

 which drive down their sides, in almost universal 

 torrents, work thousands of little channels round 



the 



