214 EMBANKMENTS. 
perhaps, than two or three feet high, the winter floods 
surmount them ; or if raised higher, the water, at that 
season, is, I understand, sometimes let into the mea¬ 
dows, by sluices opened for that purpose, so that the 
meadows stiil receive a benefit from the floods.” In 
some places, where the channel of the river is near one 
side of the valley, an embankment is raised on one side 
only. 
CHAPTER 
