NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL LAKES 



verting a bit of unsightly swamp land into a lake. 

 When the swampy land leads down to ocean or chan- 

 nel, as in seaside gardening, the area for the lake 

 may be dyked, in order to keep the water at a con- 

 stant level. Then no matter how the tide rises and 

 falls outside, the lake, with its decorative planting 

 of lilies and lotus and its ornamental margins, will 

 remain under the control of the gardener, with little 

 to fear from flooding. 



Dredging is even better than dyking. This is 

 practical for any sort of inland lake when the home 

 grounds are situated far from tide level of channels 

 or bays. The dredging consists of pumping out the 

 water and mud of the swamp by scooping or by suck- 

 ing it up with a suction dredge. After deciding upon 

 the size and the outlines of the lake, the space is 

 dredged out ; and the sand and mud scooped out are 

 deposited to fill in the remainder of the low spot, so 

 as to provide a high, even embankment all around. 

 The bank should be of the right height to give a good 

 retaining wall and merge into the higher ground 

 surrounding. The lake will then present the appear- 

 ance of being a part of the broad sweep of lawn, 

 without any suggestion of the original pest-hole of 

 mosquito-breeding swamp. 



When it is not practical to dam up some natural 

 depression through which a stream flows, and there 

 is no opportunity for dyking to keep the water at 



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