TREATMENT OF WATER. 
327 
like gradual rise on both sides, for this would inevitably 
produce tameness and monotony, but in an irregular and 
varied manner ; sometimes falling back gradually, some- 
times starting up perpendicularly, and again overhanging 
the bed of the lake itself. 
All this can be easily etfected, while the excavations of 
those portions of the bed which require deepening are going 
on. And the better portions of the soil obtained from the 
latter, will serve to raise the banks when they are too low. 
It is of but little consequence how roughly and irregularly 
the projections, elevations, etc., of the banks and outlines are 
at first made, so that some general form and connection is 
preserved. The danger lies on the other side, viz : in pro- 
ducing a whole too tame and insipid, for we have found by 
experience, how difficult it is to make the best workmen un- 
derstand how to operate in any other way than in regular 
curves and straight lines. Besides, newly moved earth, by 
settling, and the influence of rains, etc., tends, for some 
time, towards greater evenness and equality of surface. 
Mr. Price, in his unrivalled instructions for the creation 
of pieces of artificial water, has suggested another excellent 
method by which the outlines and banks of lakes, may be 
varied. This is, first, by cutting down the banks, in some 
places nearest the water, perpendicularly, and then under- 
mining them. This will produce a gradual variation in 
some parts, which, falling to pieces, will produce new and 
irregular accidental outlines. When, by the action of rain 
and frost, added to that of the water itself, large fragments 
of mould tumble from the hollowed banks of rivers or lakes, 
these fragments, by the accumulation of other mould, often 
lose their rude and broken form, are covered with the fresh- 
est grass, and enriched with tufts of natural flowers ; and 
