12 ON THE KECLAMATION OF AGRICULTUEAL LAND. 



the river may be found shifting its channel from side to side 

 of the valley, and devastating all the intervening land. This 

 may sometimes be obviated by diverting the courses of the 

 rivers immediately above their junction, in such a direction 

 and to such an extent that at the point where they unite the 

 direction of their respective currents should be as nearly as 

 possible parallel. But the configuration of the ground and 

 the boundaries of the adjacent properties may present such 

 difficulties and involve such cost as to render such a work 

 practically impossible, and, in that case, the river must be left 

 to take its course, and the land within reach of its flood lines 

 abandoned for all agricultural puposes. 





