At the site of the railway bridge over the river Tista in Bengal, it was necessary to close the main stream (fig. 25), which flowed at the left side of the channel, while the bridge had been built at the right. The bed was of sand, width 500 feet, depth 6 feet, and discharge 3700 cubic feet per second. The first attempt to close the stream was made at M N, a floor of stone 200 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 2 feet thick, being laid in the middle of the stream, and dams of earth, sandbags, and stones being run out from each bank. As the gap decreased in width the bed was torn up and the work failed. The heading up was 3 feet 9 inches. It was recognised later that the site should have been at the bifurcation higher up, and that the stone floor should have been laid on a mattress. In the next working season the dams C D and E F G were made. The dam C D was of earth. Two walls, each consisting of a double line of bamboos with the spaces between the lines filled with bundles of grass weighted with earth, were run out 50 feet in advance of the earthwork near the lines of the toes of the slopes. Along the line of the upper wall a mattress of broken bricks 10 feet in width, and 1 foot thick, was laid, and was kept 50 feet in advance of the wall. A total length of 1000 feet of embankment was made in five months and pitched on its upstream side. The end was strongly protected by a mass of stone. The embankment F G was of earth. The dam E F consisted of three lines of piles driven 10 feet into the bed. A mattress weighted with stones extended for 20 feet upstream of the dam and 40 feet downstream. A gap of 150 feet was left at D E, and was not protected by a floor of any kind. A channel, parallel to F G and extending to K, had been dug to a width of 200 feet. During the floods the heading up at D E was about 2·5 feet, and the water was 30 feet deep. The line E F was greatly damaged and was repaired. The cut F G K gradually enlarged, and by the end of the floods more water was going down it than down the main stream. The gap D E was finally closed by means of a line of bamboos and grass, the bed being protected by a carpet, 100 × 50 feet, made of common cloth weighted with sandbags. The success of the operations turned on the scouring out of the cut F G K. It is remarkable that the gap D E did not become wholly unmanageable in the floods (_Min. Proc. Inst. C.E._, vol. cl.). CHAPTER VIII THE TRAINING AND CANALISATION OF RIVERS