g8 TlMEHRI. 
thick is formed : a rope with an eye at each end, is now drawn round 
the mass and a hand-spike is placed through the eyes from different 
sides, when the whole is twisted into a fascine some twelve inches in 
diameter. A piece of bush rope is securely tied at an interval of every 
foot in length until the entire mass, some 30 feet long, is like a solid 
rope. Leaving the fascine makers and proceeding into the savannah 
for some distance, I observed a dam of fascines which is made as 
follows : spars about four to five inches in diameter, are securely driven 
two or three feet into the ground in rows five feet apart, and about two 
feet from each other ; into this space the fascines are firmly packed 
and all fine grass and debris is sucked by the dammed-back water into 
the crevices between the layers of fascines. Some of this work done two 
years ago is now quite tight, resembling as it does, a wet sponge ; and the 
work now in progress, with a head of two feet of water against it, is won- 
derfully tight already, and I was told that in a month's time it would 
simply weep a trifle of water. On getting into the high wood, the real 
work, which has given it the name of Beaver, is seen. A line is blazed 
across the woods and a gang of men are at work with rakes and strong 
round-edged turf knives in clearing away the underbush for a couple 
of roods on the site of what is to be the dam. The heavy trees are now 
felled in such a way as to fall on the line of the dam, the force in falling 
being generally sufficient to lay them flat to the ground. The branches 
are then trimmed off and interwoven in such a way as to hold all light 
floating matter which is drawn into the interstices between the branches 
by the pressure of the water ; a clear space is made on the side on 
which the pressure bears, to facilitate the conveyance of water, grass, 
fascines, etc., which are called for to complete the packing of the dam. 
Such is, roughly, a description of work which seems to be admirably 
adapted for preliminary damming-up of water for experimental purposes, 
and the wonder is that it has been so long in being introduced into this 
colony. I was informed that breaches in back dams, at one time looked 
upon as a great calamity, have lost all terrors to the beaver fraternity, 
for they throw a semicircle beaver dam at a considerable distance away 
from the breach and a fascine dam is constructed in less than no time. 
The intention of the present work is to gain two feet more head 
against the coming dry season, as without this wing dam to the west, 
the water can escape waste to 56 G.D. and at the end of last dry season 
the water in the lake went down to 54, a datum quite high enough for 
