M O N I V A. 27 t 



through the north bog, laid out an approach, 

 7 perch wide, to his houfe, but his life proved 

 too fhort to execute his exteniive fcheme. 



Upon his deceafe, in the year 1744, I firft 

 purfued his plan to turn the courfe of the river, 

 widened the drain made by hiin to 27 and 30 

 feet, according to the height of the bog^ and 

 funk the drain to the gravel, where I could do 

 fo, and in fome parts two and three feet deep 

 into the gravel, which proved exceflive hard. 

 In other parts of the drain, the bottom of the 

 bog was much lower than the level of the river, 

 in which parts, as the w 7 ater could not be 

 drained off, there was no digging to the gravel. 

 The fides of the drain were fo high, that I was 

 obliged to cut them in fome parts into benches, 

 in the form of flairs, to prevent the men at the 

 bottom from being overwhelmed, which would 

 once have happened, only that a man Handing 

 on the furface, obferving the bog to burfr, gave 

 the alarm, by which he faved the lives of feve- 

 ral men; for in a few moments many perches 

 in length of the drain were rilled up to the top, 

 more difficult to be again (hovelled out, than 

 if it had not been cut before ; it required fome- 

 times four or five men Handing upon different 

 benches to convey what the loweit fhovel took 

 up to the top, beiides the neceffity of removing 

 the fluff from the edge of the drain, to prevent: 

 the frequent burftings in of the bog. The 

 greateft difncultv was to draw up prodigious 

 large roots of fir trees, which lay firmly fixed 

 B b 2 and 



