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FASCINE WORK IN N.S.W. XXVII. 
have stone only it is very apt to slip forward, owing to excessive 
weight on the toe when a scour takes place in the river. A 
mixture of fascine, clay, and stone will stand a heavy rush’ of 
water, and has proved to be very successful, it is light, and does 
not put too much weight on the toe of the bank, that is speaking 
of a bank of forty to fifty feet in height, alternate layers of stone 
and fascines have proved very successful. When commencing 
work at the Tweed River, great pressure was brought to bear to 
have fascine work introduced, this was not done, as he pointed 
out what must happen if this class of work were adopted, it would 
be sure to scour away. It ended that he carried out the work 
cheaper than any work of a similar kind in the Colony, certainly 
everything was favourable to this end, and it is now a permanent, 
lasting, and cheap work. Formerly there were ten to twelve 
inches of water, but now there is a depth of over fourteen feet, 
and in cases of that sort stone is the proper thing to use. In cases 
like Cook’s River where stone is scarce and would have been very 
costly, fascine work was suitable, but if the channel is to be 
deepened eventually the banks must be faced with stone to make 
them permanent. 
Mr. Grimsuaw agreed with Mr. Darley’s remarks, but did not 
consider that the author had written the paper with any view of 
making a comparison. between stone and fascine work, or mis- 
leading anyone in believing that facine work was superior to stone, 
but simply with a view of describing where and how fascine 
work was being used by the Public Works Department of 
this Colony. Some of the failures mentioned were attributable 
+o the fact that fascine is used on mud flats, or where the bottom 
is very soft and difficult to deal with. He had no doubt what- 
ever, that for a first class work stone should be used, but in 
many cases it was quite out of the question on account of the 
expense, although stone ballast is much cheaper now than it 
was. Most of the fascine banks had stood very well indeed, 
though in places where washed by the salt water they could not 
get any protection from vegetation, which forms a great protection 
