EMBANKMENT. In territorial im provement, an embankment is a mound of earth or a wall, or a structure coin poaed of a wall or partly of a bank of earth, to protect lands from being overflown by rivers or the sea. Em bankments appear to have been coeval with the culture of corn crops ; because these, it appears, were first grown on the alluvial soils which border large rivers, and to protect the crops from the over flowing of these rivers after heavy or long-continued rains, the cultivator would naturally throw up a bank of earth. This appears to have been done in Egypt at the most remote period of which there is any record. In modern times, embank ments are employed, not merely to pro tect land under cultivation, but to en close land that is occasionally overflown by rivers or the sea, and render it fit for the purposes of husbandry. This has been done to a greater extent in Holland than in any other country. There are
also immense embankments in Italy, par ticularly in Lombardy. In Britain, there are the embankments of the Thames near London, which have been in exist ence since the time of the Romans ; many in Lincolnshire, formed during the time of Cromwell, and some of them many centuries before ; and one of the most recent is that at Tre Madoc in Caer narvonshire, by which upwards of 4000 acres were recovered from spring tides, and in great part rendered fit for the plough. Embankments are attended with immense expense ; but as the soil gained or protected is generally of the best quality, a judicious embankment is commonly considered as paying about the same rate of interest as a landed estate. The levees of the Mississippi are numerous examples.