PART IV. AGRICULTURE. 213 



with furze, brushwood, or straw, &c. (fig. 8.) These materials would 

 retain the sand as the tide passed through ; and in a very short 

 time an embankment would be made of the form shewn in the 

 figure, which should then be planted with the elymus arena- 

 rim to bind it. At extraordinary tides it would continue to 

 attract more, until at last it was raised above their reach. I 

 know several places (Severn, Humber, Frith, &c.) where from 

 twenty to thirty thousand acres could be gained by this mode 

 in a few years ! ! 



Whatever kind of embankment is constructed, proper sluices 

 and tunnels, with valves next the sea, should be placed here and 

 there according to circumstances, to allow the water collected 

 within to pass off, and the sea to enter occasionally, either for 

 admitting the practice of warping or depositing sand, or mud, to 

 raise the surface of the land gained, or to flood the soil, in 

 order to produce salt, marsh, &c. &c. 



SECT. IV. THE PRESERVATION OF EMBANKMENTS OR BANKS 

 OF RIVERS BY ERECTING PIERS OR PROJECTIONS TO 

 WARD OFF THE CURRENT. 



In nature, we see the great power of projecting points on the 

 sea or rivers; either upon a great scale, as promontories de- 

 fending bays and inlets ; or upon a small scale, as rocks, roots 



