rozet’s plan. 
407 
supposes, the rapidity of the current would be checked, and the 
quantity of transported pebbles and gravel much diminished. 
When the stream has reached that part of its course where 
it is bordered by soil capable of cultivation, and worth the 
expense of protection, he proposes to place along one or both 
sides of the stream, according to circumstances, a line of cubical 
blocks of stone or pillars of masonry three or four feet high 
and wide, and at the distance of about eleven yards from each 
other. The space between the two lines, or between a line and 
the opposite high bank, would, of course, be determined by 
observation of the width of the swift-water current at high 
floods. As an auxiliary measure, small ditches and banks, or 
low walls of pebbles, should be constructed from the line of 
blocks across the grounds to be protected, nearly at right 
angles to the current, but slightly inclining downward, and at 
convenient distances from each other. Hozet thinks the proper 
interval would be 300 yards, and it is evident that, if he is 
right in his main principle, hedges, rows of trees, or even 
common fences, would in many cases answer as good a pur¬ 
pose as banks and trenches or low walls. The blocks or pillars 
of stone would, he contends, check the lateral currents so as to 
compel them to let fall all their pebbles and gravel in the main 
channel—where they would be rolled along until ground down 
to sand or silt—and the transverse obstructions would detain 
the water upon the soil long enough to secure the deposit of 
its fertilizing slime. Numerous facts are cited in support of 
the author’s views, and I imagine there are few residents of 
rural districts whose own observation will not furnish testi¬ 
mony confirmatory of their soundness.* 
* The effect of trees and other detached obstructions in checking the 
flow of water is particularly noticed by Pa-lissy in his essay on Waters and 
Fountains , p. 173, edition of 1844. “ There be,” says he, “in divers parts 
of France, and specially at Nantes, wooden bridges, where, to break the 
force of the waters and of the floating ice, which might endamage the piers 
of the said bridges, they have driven upright timbers into the bed of the 
rivers above the said piers, without the which they should abide biu little. 
And in like wise, the trees which be planted along the mountains do much 
deaden the violence of the waters that flow from them. 
