Flooding and soils

1236. The water of rivers may become injurious to lands on their banks, by too frequently overflowing their surface. In this case, the stream may be included by mounds of earth or other materials impervious to water; and thus aquatic soils may be rendered dry and fit for useful herbage and aration. The same may be said of lands occasionally overflown by the sea. Hence the origin of embanking, an art carried to a great extent in Holland and Italy. (See Smeaton's Posthumous Works; Sigismondi Agr. Tosc.; Raccolta dei Autori che trattano dell' Aque; and our article Embankment, in Supp. Encyc. Brit. 1819.)