TKBATMENT OP W ATKE. 315 



course, and damming up the little brook artificially ; stu- 

 diously avoiding, however, any formal and artificial dis- 

 position of the stones or rocks employed. 



Larger water-falls and cascades cannot usually be made 

 without some regular head or breastwork, to oppose more 

 firmly the force of the current. Such heads may be formed 

 of stout plank and well prepared clay ;* or, which is greatly 

 preferable, of good masonry laid in water cement. After 

 a head is thus formed it must be concealed entirely from 

 the eye by covering it both upon the top and sides with 

 natural rocks and stones of various sizes, so ingeniously 

 disposed, as to appear fully to account for, or be the cause 

 of the water-fall. 



The axe of the original backwoodsman appears to have 

 left such a mania for clearing behind it, even in those 

 portions of the Atlantic states where such labor should be 

 for ever silenced, that some of our finest places in the 

 country will be found much desecrated and mutilated by 

 its careless and unpardonable use ; and not only are fine 

 plantations often destroyed, but the banks of some of our 

 finest streams and prettiest rivulets partially laid bare by 

 the aid of this instrument, guided by some tasteless hand. 

 Wherever fine brooks or water courses are thus mutilated, 

 one of the most necessary and obvious improvements is to 

 reclothe them with plantations of trees and underwood. 

 In planting their banks anew, much beauty and variety 

 can often be produced by employing diflferent growths, 

 and arranging them as we have directed for the margins 



* It is foimd that strong loam or any tenacious earth well prepared by 

 puddling or beating in water is equally impervious to water as clay ; and may 

 tlierefore be used for lining the sides or dams of bodies of made water wheo 

 such materials are required. 



