ON THE RECLAMATION 



The remedial measures for checking the abrading action re- 

 ferred to are, the planting of willows or reeds on the banks, the 

 deposit of broken stones of sizes varying with the exposure, 

 timber piling and planking, and the deposit of fascines or 

 faggots of brushwood. It may, however, be safely affirmed 

 that nothing tends more to the protection of a river's banks 

 than a uniformly smooth surface. The water in such a case 

 meeting no obstruction, glides gently past without resistance. 

 But if the banks have from neglect got into a rugged, uneven 

 state, they are comparatively easily excavated by the current ; 

 and it may be well to keep in view that an inoffensive, sluggish 

 stream, which passes quietly along a smooth bank, will become 

 a formidable excavator if there be opposed to its otherwise gentle 

 flow a succession of rugged protuberances. Each of such pro- 

 tuberances, though on a small scale, acts in the same way as a 

 jetty, the water is heaped up on its upstream side, and flows with 

 increased velocity and scouring power round its extremity, and 

 the river thus becomes more destructive in wasting its banks. 



In all cases, therefore, where such streams intersect valuable 

 property, all irregularities and incipient wastings in the banks 

 should be repaired without loss of time after the occurrence of 

 each flood. 



In many cases, how r ever, such repairs cannot be conveniently 

 made until the wasting has proceeded so far as to render neces- 

 sary some of the works to which I have referred, such as the 

 deposit of stone, broken like large road metal, in sufficient 

 quantity to make a new face to the river's bank, which is a 

 simple and often efficient means of defence, and should in 

 all cases be first tried; But where the current is strong 



