The levees have been in some places troubled with beaver, which, however, are now hunted for their fur, and will not long be troublesome.

There is no musk-rat--an animal which would do serious damage here.

The tule-rat lives on roots on the land, but is not active or strong enough to be injurious.
The levee is usually from six to eight feet broad on top, with the inside sloping; but I was told that experience had shown that the outside should be perpendicular.

It is not unusual for parts of a levee to sink down, but I could hear of no case of capsizing.

The Levee Board of a district appoints levee-masters, whose duty it is to look after the condition of the work, and on the islands I visited there were gangs of Chinamen engaged in repairing and heightening the embankments.
You land at a wharf, and, standing on top of the levee, you see before you usually the house and other farm buildings, set up on piles, for security against a break and overflow; and beyond a great track of level land, two or three or five feet below the level of the levee, and, if it has but lately been reclaimed, covered with the remnants of tules and of grass sods.
When the levee is completed, and the land has had opportunity to drain a little, the first operation is to burn it over.