toe, when the ground is very soft, have all been used with success. On silty land willows generally grow rapidly, and when planted a little distance from the toe of the land slope in enclosure embankments they are found to protect the ground. In some situations it may be necessary to protect an embankment against boring by burrowing animals or crustacea. Clay and clay loams are soils especially liable to be burrowed. Usually as the quantity of sand increases, the boring decreases; a coating of hard ashes may afford the required protection: however, in the case of crustacea, local experience alone can indicate the best protection, probably nothing less than stone pitching may suffice, but as a general rule in this country, no precautions are necessary; in warmer regions it may be otherwise. With reference to fissures in a slope which tend to produce slips as they allow water to trickle down them, which must either be absorbed by the earth or find an outlet; a slippery surface is thus created and the tenacity and continuity of the soil impaired or destroyed; separation also takes place in non-homogeneous earths such as boulder clay and in embankments formed of rock and earth tipped together. It is practically impossible to fill or pun every fissure that may appear in a cutting or an embankment, but as there are generally places where slips are more probable than others, it may be advantageous in treacherous soils to adopt a regular system of filling the fissures, especially before the wet season commences.