It is obvious the care that is bestowed upon a reservoir embankment, such as the damping, punning, rolling, mixing of the material, and raising it in layers, is not necessary in a railway or ordinary embankment; however, certain precautions should be observed and may be effected at a small cost, and it is well to remember that errors of construction will cause undue strain upon particular parts. A fruitful cause of a slip or subsidence in an embankment is the variation of the character and condition of the tipped earth. It seldom happens that the soil of a cutting of considerable extent is the same throughout in character and condition; and the earth in an embankment tipped at one end may be different to that deposited at the other, and therefore the point of contact of the two earths will probably be troublesome. When a seam of unstable soil occurs in a clay cutting, it should not be tipped but be run to spoil. Such layers are usually of small extent, yet in an embankment they may cause portions to run in rainy or frosty weather. Side cuttings are a protection against slips in embankments when they are sufficiently far from the toe of the slope, as they form drainage channels, but the excavation being top soil is loose and porous, therefore, when the lower portion of an embankment is made from side cutting and the upper from a cutting, the firm material may be at the top and the more open earth at the base; consequently, if an embankment in soil of a doubtful character must be partly constructed from side cutting and partly from cutting, especial care is required in forming it so as to prevent slips and subsidence, and also, in excavating any ground for such purposes, it is advisable not to interfere with any ditches, or join them, as by concentration a stream may be created. In countries where land is of little value, contractor’s plant expensive, not to be obtained in the district, and carriage costly, embankments in most cases can be more cheaply and quickly deposited from side cutting than cutting, the excavation from the latter being run to spoil instead of tipped by waggons into the embankment, therefore, their erection by such means becomes imperative for reasons of economy. In depositing embankments it is well to remember that experience has proved that materials uniform in size and homogeneous in character form the most compact and impenetrable masses. The great stability of breakwaters formed of materials of uniform size and the firmness of macadamized roads are proofs of this. The same rule applies to soils. It is the separation of the larger bodies from the smaller that causes a want of cohesiveness and weight-sustaining power.