XXVIII. DISCUSSION. 
in fresh water. The slips described by the author have given a 
great deal of trouble, the slip at Long Cove occurred in spite of 
piles having been driven twenty feet into the mud, they invariably 
occurred when the dredges were filling in at the back of the bank, 
and at low tide. It was the weight at the back of the bank that 
pushed the mud through and underneath the bank, and the same 
occurred in a lesser degree in stone dykes. In the case of the 
Moruya work, mud and silt in the ends of the fascine dyke were 
washed away by sea waves, leaving the bushes only ; and no 
doubt stone should have been used. Still in his opinion the work 
was started from the wrong end, it should have been commenced 
at the shore or upstream end, instead of which it was com- 
menced at the sea end. When the flood came down the river it 
got at the back of the dyke and washed a great portion of it away. 
In swampy country, such as Cook’s River, an immense amount 
of stone would have been absorbed as there is no saying to what 
depth it would have sunk in the soft mud. In the case of Rozelle 
Bay it sank over eight feet, and in Long Cove it disappeared 
altogether. There was no more expense in keeping the fascine 
work in good order than was experienced with the sides of an 
ordinary river, when once the reclamation was complete. He 
was quite of opinion that the facing of fascine banks should be 
of stone, if possible, and where there was a rocky or hard bottom 
stone should be used entirely. 
Mr. P. ALLAN said, where you have to dredge a channel to a 
considerable depth, it is inadvisable to use anything but stone, as 
he believed it to be very doubtful whether successful work could 
otherwise be done. 
Mr. Simpson said that he quite agreed with the remark that 
more is sometimes to be learned from failure than from success, 
but as it has been pointed out by members there are cases in which — 
fascine work would be quite inappropriate, and in other cases 
fascine work should undoubtedly be adopted. 
Mr. Burrows in reply, stated, that the primary reason of this 
paper was to give information, as to the purposes for which fascine 
